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Chapter 27 - Action Research as an Impactful Approach to Study Strategy with Practice

from Part IV - Methodological Resources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2025

By
Danielle P. Zandee
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

Danielle Zandee explores everything SAP researchers always wanted to know about action-research methods but were afraid to consider in their own work. The author argues and demonstrates how action research by joining practitioners in their real-time strategic efforts can be fruitful for developing innovative insights and impactful research. In turbulent times and unsettling settings, action research appears to be a risky but highly promising road for advancing strategy as practice. The author describes the main characteristics and modalities of action research and summarizes how action research has been discussed and applied in strategy as practice. To help strategy as practice researchers to engage with practitioners in their research, this contribution puts forth a framework providing a set of core questions for developing relevant and rigorous research designs and conducting issue-driven inquiry whilst staying connected with SAP research interests and requirements. Overall, the proposed action research framework provides SAP researchers with an ambitious agenda to study and impact strategic practice close to where it happens in the daily work of strategists. Yet, Danielle Zandee also recognizes that while action research can be extremely rewarding in terms of the subjective and reflexive research experience, it is typically very time-consuming and complex. Finally, some guidance on how to gradually adopt action research as methodology within the SAP domain, is provided.

Keywords

strategy as practicepractice approachaction research
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice , pp. 493 - 510
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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