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Chapter 31 - Studying Strategy as Practice through Historical Methods

from Part IV - Methodological Resources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2025

By
Mona Ericson ,
Leif Melin  and
Andrew Popp
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

Mona Ericsson, Leif Melin and Andrew Popp discuss the fruitfulness of historical methods for strategy as practice research. The authors start by directing our attention to the limitations of how business historians typically write about strategy, which is inductive and based on corporate archives and thus typically silent about what really goes on inside a firm. Drawing on their own rich and vast background in historical research, the authors then introduce four categories of methods suitable that giving voice to strategy practitioners about their strategy-making over time: (1) written sources and narratives; (2) micro history; (3) ego documents; and (4) lived experience. Using their own research projects as illustrations, Ericsson, Melin and Popp introduce each of these categories of historical methods and provide insightful reflections on their challenges and limits. The authors stress that these historical methods allow open a window for critical reflection on time, providing us with alternatives for evaluating present occurrences and for appreciating the inherently temporal dimension of practice.

Keywords

strategy as practicepractice approachhistorical methods
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 557 - 574
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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