Call for Papers, EGOS 2006
Strategizing and Organizing Activity and Practice
Convenors:
Paula Jarzabkowski, Aston Business School
Patrick Regnér, Institute of International Business at
the Stockholm School of Economics,
Linda Rouleau, HEC Montreal,
Call for papers:
A practice perspective on strategizing focuses on the
day-to-day activities and practices of strategizing
and addresses questions such as: who the strategists
are, what strategists do, how they do it, what
influences the work of strategizing, and what are the
consequences of strategizing activity? This year, in
keeping with the main theme of the track, the
Strategizing: Activity and Practice Standing Working
Group is looking for papers that explore the
association between organizing and strategizing, both
organizing inside the firm and how the strategizing
that takes place within firms contributes to the
organizing of wider social, economic and industry
characteristics. We are looking for theoretical papers
as well as case studies that can provide useful
insights into these questions. Innovative papers that
draw on theoretical and methodological pluralism are
encouraged. Papers that address the following two
themes are welcome but these themes are not exclusive,
and any papers that address the principles of the
Standing Working Group will be considered
<www.egosnet.org/groups/rgroupstrategizing.shtml>, or
<www.strategy-as-practice.org> for details on the type
of work that our community is interested in).
1) Particular attention will be paid to works that
explore the interconnectedness between strategizing
and organizing inside the firm. We seek papers that
can rethink and combine existing approaches to
organizing and strategizing (which are typically seen
as separate in the literature) to provide
empirically-driven explanations of how the two shape
each other as well as to derive new research questions
and provide new research insights. In their day-to-day
activities managers draw on formalized organizing
practices, such as coordination mechanisms,
performance indicators, and resource allocation
mechanisms as well as more ad hoc practices, such as
workshops and project groups, in order to shape
strategies, and in the process transforming these
internal practices of organizing. Potential papers
might address this as: How do particular formalized or
ad hoc organizing practices influence the work of
strategizing and what are the consequences of
strategizing on these organizing practices?
Additionally, we seek papers that can develop more
socially dynamic explanations of how organizing
practices such as routines and capabilities come
to be associated with competitive advantage, how
competitive advantage shapes such organizing
practices, and, particularly, how organizing
practices transform competitive advantage.
2) One of the major challenges for the Strategizing:
Activity and Practice research agenda is our capacity
as researchers to better understand and explain the
embeddedness of the firm's strategic orientation
within its economic, political and social context at
the macro level and at more meso industry levels.
While much research addresses this from an
institutional perspective, examining how
institutionalized forces influences firm-level
strategizing, there is less research into how the
micro strategizing practices inside firms have an
impact on their external context. We are particularly
interested in papers that explore the
interconnectedness between strategizing practices
inside the firm and the organizing of industries,
markets and wider social and economic contexts. Here
papers might address how micro-strategizing practices
are involved in cross-firm collaborations, influencing
regulatory policy and/or shaping markets. Papers that
can demonstrate empirical links between within-firm
strategizing practices and the organizing of the meso
and macro contexts within which firms work are
particularly welcome.
In this sub-theme, we are keen to engage participants
in panel discussions of key strategizing and practice
topics, have whole group sessions to discuss papers
that contribute to key issues in the field, and
provide more personal feedback for developmental
papers. At the same time, we would like to take as
many participants as possible. We will therefore run
the sub-theme sessions as a mix of:
an introductory and concluding panel session with
key presenters and discussants from both inside and
outside the strategizing activity and practice field;
3 x standard paper sessions of 3 papers for those
papers that are either very well developed or that
raise topical issues for discussion
2 x interactive round table paper sessions of up to
4 tables, with 3 papers per table, to provide small
group feedback and discussion on other papers, with a
particular aim of helping participants to develop
their ideas and contributions to the strategizing
activity and practice field.
We hope this will provide a combination of lively
discussion, advancement of the field, and attention to
and support for each others' work.
Convenors
Paula Jarzabkowski, Reader in Strategic Management,
Aston Business School, UK,
P.A.Jarzabkowski@aston.ac.uk
Patrick Regnér, Assistant Professor, Institute of
International Business at the Stockholm School of
Economics, Sweden,
Patrick.Regner@hhs.se
Linda Rouleau, Associate Professor, Management
Department, HEC Montreal, Canada,
linda.rouleau@hec.ca
Strategic Management Group
Aston Business School
Aston University
Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
Tel: +44 (0)121 204 3139
Fax: +44 (0)121 204 3306
Personal Webpage:
www.abs.aston.ac.uk/newweb/staff/detail.asp?sfldStaffID=A0000327
Strategy as practice Webpage:
http://www.strategy-as-practice.org