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Material artifacts: Practices for doing strategy with ‘stuff’

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  • Jarzabkowski, Paula
  • Paul Spee, Andreas
  • Smets, Michael

Abstract

This paper addresses the dearth of research into material artifacts and how they are engaged in strategizing activities. Building on the strategy-as-practice perspective, and the notion of epistemic objects, we develop a typology of strategy practices that show how managers use material artifacts to strategize by a dual process of knowledge abstraction and substitution. Empirically, we study the practice of underwriting managers in reinsurance companies. Our findings first identify the artifacts – pictures, maps, data packs, spreadsheets and graphs – that these managers use to appraise reinsurance deals. Second, the analysis of each artifact’s situated use led to the identification of five practices for doing strategy with artifacts: physicalizing, locating, enumerating, analyzing, and selecting. Last, we developed a typology that shows how practices vary in terms of their level of abstraction from the physical properties of the risk being reinsured and unfold through a process of substituting. Our conceptual framework extends existing work in the strategy-as-practice field that calls for research into the role of material artifacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Jarzabkowski, Paula & Paul Spee, Andreas & Smets, Michael, 2013. "Material artifacts: Practices for doing strategy with ‘stuff’," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 41-54.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:31:y:2013:i:1:p:41-54
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2012.09.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eero Vaara & Richard Whittington, 2012. "Strategy as practice : Taking Social Practices Seriously," Post-Print hal-02276672, HAL.
    2. Eero Vaara & Virpi Sorsa & Pekka Palli, 2010. "On the force potential of strategy texts : a critical discourse analysis of a strategic plan and its power effects in a city organization," Post-Print hal-02312559, HAL.
    3. Sarah Kaplan, 2011. "Strategy and PowerPoint: An Inquiry into the Epistemic Culture and Machinery of Strategy Making," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 320-346, April.
    4. Eero Vaara & Richard Whittington, 2012. "Strategy as practice : Taking Social Practices Seriously," Post-Print hal-02312709, HAL.
    5. Linda Rouleau, 2005. "Micro‐Practices of Strategic Sensemaking and Sensegiving: How Middle Managers Interpret and Sell Change Every Day," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(7), pages 1413-1441, November.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Alberto Franco, L., 2013. "Rethinking Soft OR interventions: Models as boundary objects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(3), pages 720-733.
    3. Butler, Nick, 2018. "Fantasies of strategy: Žižek, discourse and enjoyment," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 79-88.
    4. Bashir, Naheed & Papamichail, K.Nadia & Malik, Khaleel, 2017. "Use of Social Media Applications for Supporting New Product Development Processes in Multinational Corporations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 176-183.
    5. Simpson, Ace Volkmann & Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Clegg, Stewart, 2015. "Hybridity, sociomateriality and compassion: What happens when a river floods and a city's organizations respond?," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 375-386.
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    7. Darbi, William Phanuel Kofi & Knott, Paul, 2016. "Strategising practices in an informal economy setting: A case of strategic networking," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 400-413.
    8. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Des méthodes qualitatives dans la recherche en management : Voies principales, tournants et chemins de traverse," Post-Print hal-01111378, HAL.
    9. Giulia Molinengo & Dorota Stasiak, 2020. "Scripting, Situating, and Supervising: The Role of Artefacts in Collaborative Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-23, August.
    10. Elbasha, Tamim & Avetisyan, Emma, 2018. "A framework to study strategizing activities at the field level: The example of CSR rating agencies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 38-46.
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    12. Smith, Aaron C.T. & Humphries, Clare, 2017. "A post-social conceptual framework for exploring object narratives in sport organisations," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 20-32.
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    16. Fatima Canseco-Lopez & Francesc Miralles, 2023. "Adoption of Plant-Based Diets: A Process Perspective on Adopters’ Cognitive Propensity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-29, May.

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