A behavioural system of strategy‐as‐practice for grant acquisition in nonprofits: An investigation through the sensemaking theory and systems theory

The extant literature in strategy‐as‐practice (SAP) has examined it from the sensemaking theory but did not look at it from the system's standpoint. This exploratory study examines the SAP of nonprofits for grant acquisition from a systems perspective by integrating systems theory and sensemaking theory. The grounded theory approach was adopted to gather information and process data, and examine three cases over 3 years. Following the systems approach, the study found sense‐as‐stimuli as the input, sense‐as‐cognitive and behavioural interplay as the process and sense‐as‐strategizing as the output in the sensemaking of strategy‐making in nonprofits for grant acquisition. Sense‐as‐strategizing was also influenced by sense‐as‐cognitive and behavioural interplay in the feedback loop. The strategy‐making system was influenced by (1) the competitive environment for the organization and (2) social environment of the organization. Sense‐as‐cognitive and behavioural interplay influenced the social environment of the organization in a feedback loop.