Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

11.3.4 Strategy Process and Practice Revisited

Strategy-as-practice and process research have provided rich accounts of how strategy emerges through ongoing organizational activity (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007; Langley et al., 2013). This tradition emphasizes that strategy is not simply what organizations have, but what they do – the practices, interactions, and processes through which strategic direction takes shape. It has generated valuable insights into the micro-foundations of strategy, the role of materiality and discourse, and the temporal dynamics of strategic change.

Yet process research has been criticized for remaining primarily descriptive, documenting emergence without fully explaining how and why it occurs (Rouleau et al., 2022). While process studies excel at showing that strategy unfolds through practice, they often struggle to specify the mechanisms that link micro-level actions to macro-level patterns. The result is rich description but limited explanatory power: we can see that strategy emerges, but we cannot always account for how that emergence happens or predict when it will produce particular outcomes.

The mechanism chain developed in this book addresses this explanatory gap. It specifies four mechanisms – experimentation, stabilization, partial integration, and mediated feedback – that link action to strategic pattern formation. Each mechanism operates with its own logic and can be observed empirically. Together, they provide a causal account of how strategy emerges in template-free environments without requiring deliberate design or comprehensive planning.

This approach aligns with recent calls for greater attention to mechanisms in organization theory (Hedström & Ylikoski, 2010) and strategy research (Valentine et al., 2024). It bridges the gap between process description and causal explanation by showing not just that strategy emerges through practice, but how specific mechanisms produce emergence. It provides a framework for understanding when and why particular patterns of strategic action arise.

Recent process research supports and extends this mechanistic approach. Vaara et al. (2023) show how discourse shapes strategic understanding through specific linguistic mechanisms. Jarzabkowski et al. (2015) demonstrate how organizations manage temporal multiplicity through distinct temporal practices. Rindova et al. (2023) reveal how purpose is constructed through imaginative practices that link current action to possible futures. Each of these studies specifies mechanisms that operate at the micro-level but produce macro-level strategic outcomes.

The template-free framework integrates these insights into a coherent explanatory system. It shows that strategy in template-free environments emerges not through a single mechanism, but through the recursive interaction of multiple mechanisms operating simultaneously. Experimentation generates variation, but what stabilizes depends on recursive reinforcement patterns. Stabilization creates structure, but how elements integrate depends on local accommodation processes. Integration produces form, but what direction emerges depends on how feedback is interpreted and acted upon. The mechanisms are interdependent – each shapes itself and is shaped by the others.

This reconceptualization has important implications for strategy research. It suggests that process studies should focus more explicitly on identifying and specifying mechanisms. It implies that understanding strategy requires attention not just to practices themselves, but to the recursive dynamics through which practices interact to produce emergent patterns. It opens questions about which mechanisms operate under which conditions and how different mechanism configurations produce different strategic outcomes.

These four theoretical engagements – with resource-based and dynamic capabilities theory, with configuration and dialectical approaches, with platform and ecosystem theory, and with process and practice research – demonstrate the framework’s integrative reach. In each case, the template-free perspective does not reject established theory but specifies its boundary conditions and shows how strategic logic must change when those conditions no longer hold. The result is a framework that is both deeply grounded in existing scholarship and fundamentally reconceptualizing of how strategy operates under conditions that have become increasingly prevalent in digital environments.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 204 4

Gazdaság

What happens when understanding comes only after action has already begun?

Traditional strategy rests on the assumption that organizations can understand their environment before deciding how to act. Yet the conditions that once allowed organizations to rely on benchmarking, best practices, and proven strategic templates can no longer be taken for granted. Today, organizations increasingly face situations for which no clear roadmap exists. Established assumptions become less reliable, familiar reference points lose their clarity, and strategic decisions must be made before their consequences can be fully understood.

Strategy Without Templates explores how organizations learn, adapt, and navigate environments in which uncertainty is pervasive and established templates are absent or no longer sufficient. Instead of treating strategy as a process of prediction and planning, the book explores how strategic paths take shape through action, experimentation, adjustment, and learning.

A central insight in the book is that temporary solutions are often necessary. What begins as a practical response to an immediate challenge may gradually shape future possibilities in unexpected ways. Some solutions create new opportunities and sources of advantage. Others become constraints that are difficult to overcome.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/hortovanyi-strategy-without-templates//

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