Paroutis, Sotirios and Heracleous, Loizos Th.. (2013) Discourse revisited : dimensions and employment of first-order strategy discourse during institutional adoption. Strategic Management Journal . ISSN 0143-2095

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Abstract

Despite decades of research on strategy, we still know little about what the concept of strategy means to actual strategists and how they use it in practice. Working at the intersections of institutional and practice theories, we use exploratory interviews with strategy directors and a longitudinal case study to uncover four dimensions of first-order strategy discourse: functional, contextual, identity, and metaphorical. We also reveal three phases in the interrelation between first-order strategy discourse and institutional work: shaping, settling, and selling and a differential emphasis (selective focusing) on dimensions of the first-order strategy discourse during the institutional adoption process. We contribute to a deeper understanding of the concept of strategy in practice, the process of institutional adoption, and of the role of discourse in this process.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Strategy & International Business Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Discourse analysis, Policy sciences, Strategic planning, Conglomerate corporations -- Planning
Journal or Publication Title:	Strategic Management Journal
Publisher:	John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN:	0143-2095
Date:	6 March 2013
Identification Number:	10.1002/smj.2052
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/51008

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