IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v31y2013i1p41-54.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Material artifacts: Practices for doing strategy with ‘stuff’

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237312000953
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2012.09.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filippo Zanin & Maria Lusiani & Carlo Bagnoli, 2020. "The swinging role of visualization in strategic planning," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(4), pages 1019-1054, December.
    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. Idoko, Onyaglanu & MacKay, R. Bradley, 2021. "The performativity of strategic foresight tools: Horizon scanning as an activation device in strategy formation within a UK financial institution," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Rym Ibrahim & Céline Desmoulins, 2021. "Quand la mise en œuvre d'une créativité collective permet la formation de compétences collectives. Le cas d'un processus de design collaboratif," Post-Print hal-03467094, HAL.
    5. 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.
    6. François-Xavier de Vaujany & Sara Winterstorm Varlander & Emmanuelle Vaast, 2018. "At the intersection of materiality, organizational legitimacy and institutional logics: A study of campus tours 1," Post-Print halshs-01840928, HAL.
    7. Butler, Nick, 2018. "Fantasies of strategy: Žižek, discourse and enjoyment," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 79-88.
    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. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Bouhalleb, Arafet & Tapinos, Efstathios, 2023. "The impact of scenario planning on entrepreneurial orientation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roper, Angela & Hodari, Demian, 2015. "Strategy tools: Contextual factors impacting use and usefulness," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-12.
    2. 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.
    3. Demir, Robert, 2014. "Strategic Activity as Bundled Affordances," Ratio Working Papers 243, The Ratio Institute.
    4. 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.
    5. Phillips, Paul & Moutinho, Luiz, 2014. "Critical review of strategic planning research in hospitality and tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 96-120.
    6. Burström, Thommie & Wilson, Timothy L. & Wincent, Joakim, 2020. "Dynamics of after-sales managers’ strategizing work: What, why and how," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 119-131.
    7. Poul Houman Andersen & Lars Esbjerg, 2020. "Weaving a strategy for a base‐of‐the‐pyramid market: The case of Grundfos LIFELINK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3687-3701, December.
    8. Thibaut Bardon & Lionel Garreau & Chahrazad Abdallah & Benoît Journé & Maja Korica, 2020. "Rethinking Observation: Challenges and Practices," Post-Print hal-02986240, HAL.
    9. Nordin, Fredrik & Ravald, Annika, 2016. "Managing relationship gaps: A practitioner perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 2490-2497.
    10. Eero Vaara & Juha-Antti Lamberg, 2016. "Taking historical embeddedness seriously : Three historical approaches to advance strategy process and practice research," Post-Print hal-02276732, HAL.
    11. Filippo Zanin & Maria Lusiani & Carlo Bagnoli, 2020. "The swinging role of visualization in strategic planning," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(4), pages 1019-1054, December.
    12. Linden, Erik, 2021. "Pandemics and environmental shocks: What aviation managers should learn from COVID-19 for long-term planning," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Tomi Laamanen, 2019. "Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in MNCs," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Eero Vaara & Laura Fritsch, 2022. "Strategy as language and communication: Theoretical and methodological advances and avenues for the future in strategy process and practice research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 1170-1181, June.
    15. Kohtamäki, Marko & Heimonen, Jesse & Sjödin, David & Heikkilä, Vili, 2020. "Strategic agility in innovation: Unpacking the interaction between entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity by using practice theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 12-25.
    16. Englund, Hans & Gerdin, Jonas & Burns, John, 2020. "A structuration theory perspective on the interplay between strategy and accounting: Unpacking social continuity and transformation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    17. Kari Jalonen & Henri A. Schildt & Eero Vaara, 2018. "Strategic concepts as micro‐level tools in strategic sensemaking," Post-Print hal-02312245, HAL.
    18. Leonardo Lemos da Silveira Santos & César Tureta & Bruno Felix, 2021. "A Qualitative Method Proposal for the Study of Strategy as Practice," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 25(2), pages 190353-1903.
    19. Ericson, Mona, 2014. "On the dynamics of fluidity and open-endedness of strategy process toward a strategy-as-practicing conceptualization," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-15.
    20. Gary T. Burke & Carola Wolf, 2021. "The Process Affordances of Strategy Toolmaking when Addressing Wicked Problems," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 359-388, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:31:y:2013:i:1:p:41-54. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.