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Chapter 14 - Schatzki’s Practice Theory and Strategy as Practice

from Part II - Theoretical Resources: Social Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2025

By
Davide Nicolini ,
David Seidl  and
Violetta Splitter
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

Davide Nicolini, David Seidl and Violetta Splitter provide yet another very useful theoretical perspective. They focus on Theodore Schatzki’s work and explain how it has been employed in strategy as practice research. This approach, rooted in Schatzki’s practice theory, is characterized by ‘flat ontology’, and it has proven to be a very fruitful source of inspiration and a theoretical foundation for strategy as practice scholars. Nicolini, Seidl and Splitter explain that this perspective gives ontological priority to strategy practices rather than practitioners, that it helps us to understand the embeddedness and situatedness of strategy practices in their social, institutional and organizational contexts, and that helps us to better understand linkages between bundles of practices in strategy and strategizing. This leads them to point to specific areas of application and offer implications and guidelines for future research using this approach in strategy as practice research.

Keywords

strategy as practicepractice approachSchatzkian perspectiveflat ontology
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 249 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Acknowledgements

Davide Nicolini would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the Fannin Library, Phoenix College, Arizona (USA) when writing this chapter.

References

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