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Chapter 38 - The Role of Emotions in Strategizing

from Part V - Substantive Topic Areas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2025

By
Ethel Brundin  and
Feng Liu
Edited by
Damon Golsorkhi ,
Linda Rouleau ,
David Seidl  and
Eero Vaara
Damon Golsorkhi
Affiliation:
emlyon Business School
Linda Rouleau
Affiliation:
HEC Montréal
David Seidl
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Eero Vaara
Affiliation:
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
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Summary

Ethel Brundin and Feng Liu examine the role of emotions in strategizing. They suggest that studying emotions has enriched our understanding of the dynamics of strategizing practice. They explain how emotions are used as a means to realize intended ends and also how emotions may yield unintended effects. The authors highlight that the topic of emotion offers a set of promising opportunities for future research. In particular, they point to some missing themes and theories, highlight that strategy as practice research on emotions has tended to neglect strategists beyond the senior management, criticize the focus on larger organizations only, propagate research exploring the linkages between micro and macro levels of analysis and call for more methodological diversity. The authors also observe that current research is limited in that it borrows concepts from existing emotion theories rather than aiming to contribute to those theories as well.

Keywords

strategy as practicepractice approachemotions

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Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 694 - 712
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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