Jean-Pascal Gond, Guillaume Carton and Yuval Millo investigate how strategy as practice and the constitution of strategy as a specific body of expert knowledge can learn from each other. After exploring the diversity of usages and meanings of performativity mobilized by strategy as practice scholars, they adopt a Barnesian take on performativity as a knowledge-based set of practices, partially self-referential, and potentially self-validating. Their analysis extends our view of strategy as practice by providing a framework of strategy as performative practice articulated around three core mechanisms: strategy conventionalization, which explains how actors produce, and become embedded, within strategy discourse and knowledge; strategy engineering, which points to the processes whereby such strategy discourse and knowledge is materially embedded into devices, tools and techniques; and strategy commodification, which explains how market forces are involved in the reproduction of strategy discourse and knowledge. With the aim to make the strategy as practice framework deliver more extensively its academic and practical potential, the authors conclude by setting an integrative research agenda based on the ideas of performing strategy as practice and strategizing performativity.

Tomi Laamanen, Emmanuelle Reuter, Markus Schimmer, Florian Ueberbacher and Xena Welch argue that even though most work in strategy as practice research has been qualitative in nature, there are also great opportunities for studying strategy practices quantitatively. The authors first review the use of quantitative research methods in closely related strategy research streams (top management teams, middle management, strategic decision-making, strategic consensus and strategic initiatives). Next, the authors synthesize lessons learned from research based on quantitative methods and introduce established quantitative research methods (e.g., computer-aided content analysis, topic modelling and machine learning, network analysis, sequence analysis, event history analysis and event study methodology) as well as novel sources of quantitative data such as email data and press release data streams extracted from different news sources. Overall, they introduce each method and highlight possible avenues that a quantitative researcher interested in strategy practices could utilize.

Patrick Regnér examines commonalities and differences, potential relationships and synergies between strategy as practice and other contemporary approaches in strategy research (mainly RBV, the capabilities perspectives and the micro-foundations approaches including behavioural strategy). He highlights four types of insights that can be gained from research at the intersection between these approaches: (1) It provides insights into how practices, praxis and practitioners underlie resources and capabilities that maintain competitive advantage. (2) It highlights how praxis, practices and practitioners are influenced by resources and capabilities into which they are embedded. (3) Linking the ‘micro’ descriptions and explications of strategizing that the practice view provides with more ‘macro’ organizational resources and capabilities might help develop a more integrated view of strategic management. (4) Finally, relating strategy practices to strategy content and outcomes may also be of benefit to managerial practice.

This chapter focusses on the role of brands in shaping cultural intelligibility and consumer identity. It illustrates how brands, beyond their commercial role, embody cultural categories and stabilise societal norms. Brands are seen as multifaceted entities, serving as signs and symbols within a media-rich consumer environment. In exploring the company, consumer, and societal perspectives, this chapter presents an integrated approach to understanding the intricate relationship between brands and their audiences. This approach considers the complex milieu in which brands operate and the subjective realities constructed through social interactions in the habitus in branding, reflecting on how brands and consumers develop dispositions influencing social expectations. The dynamics of capital are highlighted in the exchange of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital, wherein power, often veiled in accepted cultural perceptions, is dissected as a subtle force that both brands and consumers wield.

Anne Smith, Ace Beorchia, and Jaewoo Jung respond to calls for more innovative methods in SAP research by elaborating on the foundations of photographic methods and exploring their relevance for the study of strategizing activities and practices. The authors begin by discussing the increasing interest in visuals in management and organizational research and explain why photographic methods provide unique benefits for advancing strategy as practice research. They then review the use of photography in SAP research – identifying and discussing six SAP research projects in which photographs played a prominent role. Next, they develop and explain a framework to categorize the use of photography in strategy as practice research. Considering two dimensions – the photographs’ creators and the photographs’ role in research – this framework identifies four ways photographs can be used in a research project: outside-in supportive approach, outside-in integrated approach, inside-out supportive approach, and inside-in integrative approach. Based on this framework, the authors highlight the main considerations when undertaking systematic analysis of photographic data. To illustrate how SAP research can benefit from using photographs, they provide an example from longitudinal research studying how daily activities and changes to space are connected to strategic changes and provide a structured analysis of one photo image set extracted from this research project. They conclude by discussing different options in pursuing photographic methods in SAP research.

Chapter Eight summarizes basic points and arguments of the book and discusses its conceptual and methodological contribution to the global production networks and global value chains perspectives, and to the understanding of the changing geography of the contemporary European automotive industry. The topics include the long-term effects of foreign direct investment for economic development in less developed countries and in peripheral regions; the spatial concept of integrated peripheries and its application in the explanation of automotive industry’s gradual expansion from core to peripheral regions; the regional development effects of automotive foreign direct investment in integrated peripheries; the internationalization and restructuring of the European automotive industry; the core-periphery structure of the European automotive industry; value creation and value capture in the automotive industry; and the transition to the production of electric vehicles in eastern Europe.

Violetta Splitter and David Seidl address the practical relevance of practice-based research on strategy. They review practice-based studies that have examined the ontological and epistemological conditions for producing strategy research that proves relevant to management practice. Drawing on these works, they argue that researchers inevitably adopt a scholastic point of view, which makes it impossible to directly capture the logic of strategy practice. However, strategy as practice scholars can increase the practical relevance of their research by developing theories based on practical logic. They have outlined three approaches to capture the logic of management practice: (1) theorizing through practical rationality; (2) the application of ‘participant objectivation’; and (3) the consideration of the dissociation process. They argue that if strategy as practice research builds on these insights, it can prove a particularly fruitful approach for generating knowledge that is of conceptual relevance to strategy practice.

This chapter examines the relationship between ownership and power in the context of consumer identity and brand dynamics within the cultural landscape. Ownership extends beyond the legal possession of objects to include psychological territory where brands become integral to consumers’ self-identity and self-projection. This multifaceted concept of ownership is explored through the lens of various stakeholders – consumers, employees, and corporations – each wielding influence over brand perception and value. This chapter further explores how consumers, as stakeholders, gain power by shaping brand value and meaning, emphasising the role of community and collective identity in this process. With the advent of digital platforms even lurkers contribute to the brand’s narrative, challenging traditional notions of ownership and control.

This chapter explores how value creation is shifting. Amidst the saturated media environment where consumer attention is a prized commodity, brands face the challenge of standing out and maintaining relevance. Traditional metrics of competition such as price and quality are no longer sufficient differentiators; instead, brands are increasingly evaluated by their contributions to society and the authenticity of their engagement in cultural and social issues. In articulating the complexity of value in the context of brand and society, this chapter suggests that value is not merely about economic transactions but also involves co-creation with consumers and societal impact. It explores how brands are moving beyond traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards more polarising and purpose-driven stances: that is, engaging in brand activism. This new dynamic places brands as facilitators of change, influencing culture and engaging with consumers on deeper ethical and moral grounds. Brand activism has implications on consumer perception and loyalty, where the importance of authenticity in brand activism is picked up on by consumers and can drive meaningful consumer/brand connections.

Historically, marketing has viewed women primarily as consumers and men as producers, a perspective deeply ingrained in societal gender constructs. Contemporary shifts in consumer culture, particularly the integration of physical and digital realms, have transformed the roles women play as both consumers and producers, challenging traditional gender-based market segmentation. Central to the discussion is the concept of gender as a cultural performance, with brands acting as signifiers aiding consumers in navigating their cultural landscapes. This navigation is influenced by a consumer’s gender identity and their desire for self-expression. Brands, therefore, are not just products but markers that consumers use to articulate and negotiate their identities within a gendered cultural context. Gender is presented as a spectrum, influencing how consumers relate to brands and how brands can segment their markets more effectively by gender identity rather than biological sex. Brands that understand and engage with the gendered performances of a consumer’s sense of self can create ‘safe spaces’ for consumers to express their identities, fostering deeper connections and brand loyalty.

Chapter One reviews the history of foreign direct investment in less developed world regions and less developed countries and considers the empirical evidence about its effects on economic development. It critically evaluates main theoretical and conceptual perspectives on the effects of foreign direct investment in less developed countries. I argue two main points. First, the empirical evidence points strongly towards very uneven and limited positive long-term development effects of foreign direct investment in less developed countries. Second, mainstream and heterodox approaches to foreign direct investment came to contrasting conclusions about its potential long-term development effects in less developed countries.

Pikka-Maaria Laine and Eero Vaara examine participation in strategy research in general and in strategy as practice research in particular. Participation is arguably a key issue of strategizing but has received relatively little explicit attention in strategy as practice research. The authors differentiate four perspectives on participation: participation as a non-issue, participation as part of strategy process dynamics, participation as produced in and through organizational practices, and participation as an issue of subjectivity. The authors then offer ideas for future research on participation. These include extending strategic agency to non-managerial actors, focusing on co-orientation in the interaction of actors in multifaceted strategy processes, analyzing institutional and cultural differences in participation, studying socio-materiality and its role in enabling or promoting participation, analyzing polyphony and dialogicality, and developing the critical perspectives needed to deal more comprehensively with issues such as resistance and empowerment.