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Chapter 41 - The Role of Play in Strategizing

from Part V - Substantive Topic Areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2025

By
Claus D. Jacobs  and
Jane K. Lê
Edited by
Damon Golsorkhi ,
Linda Rouleau ,
David Seidl  and
Eero Vaara
Damon Golsorkhi
Affiliation:
emlyon Business School
Linda Rouleau
Affiliation:
HEC Montréal
David Seidl
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Eero Vaara
Affiliation:
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
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Summary

Claus Jacobs and Jane Lê discuss the role of play in strategizing. While play and games have been linked with strategy for quite some time, it is only very recently that strategy scholars have focused explicit attention on the role of play. The authors start with a discussion about different approaches to play. This leads them to identify and elaborate on four purposes of using play can be used for in strategizing: achieving novelty, improving understanding of complexity, suspending norms and inviting experimentation, and skill development. They conclude with a discussion about three potential areas for future research on play in strategizing: enriching our conceptual repertoire of play, extending our empirical repertoire of play, and exploring play across all parts of the strategy process.

Keywords

strategy as practicepractice approachplaygames
Type
Chapter
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Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 740 - 754
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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