Simon Grand, Widar von Arx and Johannes Rüegg-Stürm argue that real practice research needs to be accompanied by constructivist epistemologies. They show that while there are many variants of constructivism, they all share four central concerns: (1) they question a concept of ‘reality’ as something that is ‘objectively given’; (2) they study the status of knowledge and the processes through which it is constructed; (3) they treat agency in the construction of reality as distributed among heterogeneous actants; and (4) they challenge the predominance of unquestioned dichotomies in the social sciences, like micro vs. macro or situated activities vs. collective practices. After introducing and comparing the three most central constructivist perspectives, Grand and his co-authors discuss the implications of the four central assumptions of strategy as practice research, useful for the study of strategizing practices, the understanding of strategy and the conduct of strategy research. Above all, they emphasize that the very notion of strategy and strategizing practice contains nothing that can be taken as given, but is instead the result of continuous (re)construction by the activities of the practitioners and researchers involved.

Saku Mantere turns his attention to Ludwig Wittgenstein and the potential of the philosopher’s ideas for elucidating our understanding of strategy as practice. This is an important contribution in that, apart from being one of the most influential philosophers, Wittgenstein’s ideas have paved the way for the ‘practice turn’ in social science. Both Giddens and Bourdieu, for example, have been greatly influenced by Wittgenstein. Mantere focuses on the idea of the ‘language game’ as a powerful concept to make sense of SAP. He argues that language games shed more light on the discursive struggles endemic to the practice of strategy. He also maintains that the notion of ‘forms of life’, used to characterize the non-linguistic background of social practice, can direct our attention onto a number of important yet often neglected aspects of strategy. Examples from real-life strategy conversations provide concrete illustrations of these ideas.

The focus in this chapter is on addressing the evolving power dynamics in brand–consumer relationships within the cultural landscape, underscoring the role of brands as both landmarks and co-creators of cultural narratives with consumers. It challenges the effectiveness of top-down approaches in altering behavioural norms, suggesting instead that brands must adapt to the consumer’s role in co-authoring brand identity. It emphasises that brands symbolise aspects of self that consumers constantly negotiate, seeking alignment between their self-identity and self-projection.

This negotiation occurs within a complex cultural landscape where brands must be both visible and adaptable to maintain their relevance and position. The narrative structures that brands establish are pivotal, serving as paths that guide consumers towards or away from brands, thus shaping the brand’s role and visibility in the cultural landscape. This chapter encourages brands to understand and leverage their symbolic capital, develop clear narrative structures, and foster consumer co-ownership to become and remain landmarks within the cultural landscape amidst constant shifts in consumer power and cultural contexts.

The concept of the cultural landscape represents a liminal space where physical and digital geographies intersect, creating a dynamic terrain where consumers, brands, and the landscape itself interact to create meaning and establish value. This introduction highlights the intricate relationship between brands and consumers within this landscape, exploring the fluid exchange of power and identity construction that occurs in these interactions. With a focus on how brands and consumers co-create meaning and value, the book examines the formation and exchange of capital, gender, authenticity, activism, and the power dynamics that come into play between consumers and brands.

Florence Allard-Poesi adopts a Foucauldian view on strategy as practice. This reflection explains the seminal role of Foucault’s work in more critical studies of strategy as practice, as well as pointing to new ways in which we can look at strategy as a body of knowledge. From this perspective, strategic management may be seen as a heterogeneous set of discursive and material practices. These discursive and material practices are governed by specific rules that determine what can be read, said and done in and around strategy. She argues that strategic management is similar to a monitoring technique in which the strategist is led to reveal one’s intentions, say aloud what is hidden and ‘objectify’ one’s subjectivity. This has all kinds of effects on the individuals in question and the way in which people can and will make sense of strategy.

Strategy as Practice (SAP) has emerged as a distinctive approach for studying strategic management, strategic decision-making, strategizing, strategy-making and strategy work (Jarzabkowski, Balogun and Seidl 2007; Johnson, Melin and Whittington 2003; Whittington 1996). In recent years, SAP research has become more popular than ever (Jarzabkowski, Seidl and Balogun 2022; Kohtamäki et al. 2022). SAP provides not only an organizational perspective into strategic decision-making but also a strategic angle for examining the process of organizing, and thereby it serves as a research programme and social movement for connecting contemporary strategic management research with organizational studies. This third edition of the Handbook offers an updated and forward-looking reflection about what we have learned and how to make the most out of this powerful perspective in future research.

This chapter argues that power is not only a product of capital control and movement but also of the strategic placement and narrative construct of brands. Brands that successfully become navigational beacons in the cultural landscape do so by establishing a narrative structure that resonates with consumers, thus gaining a form of power and becoming landmarks in the cultural landscape. Here, brands wield significant power in the cultural landscape by crafting identities and spaces that consumers navigate. However, this power is not absolute; it fluctuates with the consumer’s perception, community acceptance, and the brand’s ability to adapt and resonate on a local level while maintaining a wider presence. The real power of a brand lies in its ability to harmonise its institutional power with the cultural and individual identities of its consumers.

David Seidl, Stéphane Guérard and Tania Räcker review and synthesize the extant literature on the role of meetings in the context of strategy. They show that meetings involve various meeting practices, that they serve many different (manifest and latent) functions, and that their effects on the respective organization depend on the ways in which they are integrated into larger series of meetings. In addition to that they examine the literature on strategy workshops, as particular types of meetings. They explain that workshops allow suspending the existing organizational structures and, in this way, provide a platform for strategic reflection. They also report on various empirical studies that have examined the effectiveness of different workshop designs. Based on the review of the existing literature, the authors outline an agenda for future research on meetings and workshops.

Davide Nicolini, David Seidl and Violetta Splitter provide yet another very useful theoretical perspective. They focus on Theodore Schatzki’s work and explain how it has been employed in strategy as practice research. This approach, rooted in Schatzki’s practice theory, is characterized by ‘flat ontology’, and it has proven to be a very fruitful source of inspiration and a theoretical foundation for strategy as practice scholars. Nicolini, Seidl and Splitter explain that this perspective gives ontological priority to strategy practices rather than practitioners, that it helps us to understand the embeddedness and situatedness of strategy practices in their social, institutional and organizational contexts, and that helps us to better understand linkages between bundles of practices in strategy and strategizing. This leads them to point to specific areas of application and offer implications and guidelines for future research using this approach in strategy as practice research.

This chapter first considers the evolution of the concept of the ‘cultural landscape’, expanding from its traditional connection with physical geography and heritage to a broader humanities-based discourse. It examines the interactions among landscapes, societies, and their collective memories, illustrating how these connections transcend geographical boundaries and historical epochs. The chapter underscores the shift towards a landscape culturalism that acknowledges the symbiosis between digital and physical landscapes, which influences cultural and individual identities. In presenting the cultural landscape as a dynamic space where organisations, societies, and consumers’ perceptions vary based on temporal and cultural contexts, it proposes a framework for understanding how brands interact within this landscape, influencing consumer behaviour and the construction of cultural identity both in physical and digital spaces, including digital cities and suburbs.

Marie-Léandre Gomez provides a Bourdieusian perspective on strategy as practice. This is a contribution that is very much needed, given the impact of Pierre Bourdieu’s work on practice theory in general. Gomez explains how Bourdieu offers a systemic view of practice that highlights the importance of relations between agents and with the field, the capital possessed by these actors and their habitus. She argues that research on strategy can benefit greatly from Bourdieu’s praxeology. In particular, a Bourdieusian perspective allows one to overcome false dichotomies in strategy and strategizing: the micro/macro alternative, the opposition between structure and agency, and the dilemma between rationality and emerging strategy. In addition, the perspective can help us to better understand the various struggles that characterize strategy and the role of academics in these struggles.

Chapter Six investigates how distinct tiers of firms contribute to value creation and value capture in the automotive industry. It investigates the relationships between the firm’s position in automotive industry global value chains and global production networks and its prospects for value creation and capture in the context of the Czech automotive industry. It employs firm-level indicators to evaluate the value creation and capture of distinct supplier tiers in the Czech automotive industry, while considering differences between foreign-owned and domestic firms. The analysis suggests that the economic effects of the automotive industry largely depend on its capital intensity and that mostly foreign-owned higher-tier firms generate and capture greater value than lower-tier firms, which include the vast majority of domestic suppliers.