SAP-IN website as guide to Strategy-as-Practice research
SAP is devoted to fostering research into strategy as something that people in organizations do rather than something that firms in the market have.
The SAP-IN website provides an overview of different SAP communities, the different resources and the latest news for scholars who are interested in SAP research.
The strategy-as-practice research community keeps on growing. SAP-IN is a great resource and staging-post for us all, both those new to the community and those more familiar.
Richard Whittington, Professor of Strategic Management | Saïd Business School, University of Oxford 
At the SAP IG communities, we strive to share our learning experiences as a community of practice with researchers around the world. It is important for us to nurture, to support, and to encourage, but also be honest about all the challenges. As a member of this community, I organize, I participate, I develop professionally myself, and I enjoy every moment of my academic journey with SAP that I resonate with and believe in.
Qian Li, Lecturer | University of Dundee School of Business 
When we first discussed ideas for a practice approach to strategy twenty years ago, I never thought that this would eventually lead to one of the most exciting, vibrant and fastest-growing research communities.
David Seidl, Professor of Organization & Management |
University of Zurich 
SAP scholars investigate “strategizing” from different perspectives, using a broad range of concepts, theories, and methods. SAP-IN creates a valuable platform to connect all these fascinating scholars and their research.
Renate Kratochvil, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship | BI Norwegian Business School 
I discovered the SAP Community during the end of my PhD and was amazed by the strong engagement and collaboration of all its members on an international level. Being on the frontier of scientific knowledge in strategy with this amazing team is a great privilege!
It’s a source of pride and joy to me that, over the past 20 years, the practice-based approach to strategy has grown into such an intellectually stimulating, challenging, and collegial community of scholars keen to take strategy research into new areas.
Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Strategic Management | UQ Business School, University of Queensland & Bayes Business School, City, University of London 
The bibliography and videos of the SAP-IN website are incredibly valuable resources for anyone interested in the field of Strategy-as-Practice. The selection of articles and videos provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research and thinking in the area, making it an essential resource for academics, practitioners, and students alike.
Robin Engelbach, PhD Candidate | University of Zurich 
News
Here you find news and upcoming events from all SAP communities
About SAP
Strategy-as-Practice (SAP) as a research field is concerned with the doing of strategy; who does it, what they do, how they do it, what they use, and what implications this has for shaping strategy.
Practice:
the „what“ aspect.
refers to those practices that are taken up within organizations.
Practices are developed, transferred, and enacted by practitioners, for instance, senior and middle managers; they are the carriers of the practices.
Practitioner:
the „who“ aspect
of SAP highlights it is important also to attend to who performs particular practices.
Practices do not occur automatically and un-problematically. Rather, they are enacted in context, often in ways that vary considerably between firms. Such variations are not necessarily failures of practice, but rather necessary adaptations or improvisations in changing circumstances.
Praxis:
the „how“ aspect
emphasizes the relevance of how practices are enacted, i.e. praxis.
For instance, scholars found that the adoption of monitoring, target, and incentives practices is linked with profitability and sales growth.
A schematic model of strategy-as-practice
The infographic below offers a model for an integrated practice-theoretic approach to strategic management research.
It is by integrating the “what”, “who”, and “how” of practices that scholars can trace the links between firm practices and heterogeneous firm performance (Jarzabkowski et al., 2016: 250).
Jarzabkowski, P., Kaplan, S., Seidl, D., & Whittington, R. (2016).
‘On the risk of studying practices in isolation: Linking what, who, and how in strategy research’.
Strategic Organization, 14(3), 248 -259.
Find out more about …
SAP Communities
Since its beginnings, SAP scholars actively participated in several institutionalized communities, notably the Academy of Management, the European Group for Organizational Studies, and the Strategic Management Society.
Resources
Below find suggested readings and videos to get started on strategy as practice scholarship.