Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

11.4.1 The Performative Nature of Strategic Knowledge

In traditional strategy theory, knowledge is primarily representational. Firms develop mental models of their environments, analyze competitive dynamics, and formulate strategies based on their understanding of causal relationships (Gavetti & Levinthal, 2000). Knowledge precedes action. Firms first seek to understand their contexts, then act based on that understanding. The quality of strategy depends on the accuracy of representation – how well a firm’s mental model corresponds to environmental reality.

The template-free perspective inverts this epistemological relationship. When stable referents are absent and environments resist legible patterning, knowledge cannot be primarily representational. Firms cannot first develop accurate models and then act upon them because the patterns they seek to represent are themselves unstable, opaque, or absent. Instead, knowledge becomes performative (Callon, 1998) – it is generated through action rather than preceding it, and its value lies not in representational accuracy but in its capacity to enable continued adaptive movement.

This performative turn has profound implications. It means that firms develop working theories rather than accurate models – provisional interpretations that are good enough to guide action even when they remain incomplete or partly incorrect (Möhlmann et al., 2021). It implies that strategic understanding evolves alongside strategic action rather than preceding it. Firms learn what their environments are through engagement with them, and that understanding remains subject to continuous revision as conditions shift and new information emerges.

The mechanism chain embodies this performative logic. Experimentation does not test predefined hypotheses derived from accurate environmental models. It generates variation through bounded trials that produce knowledge as a byproduct of action. Stabilization does not evaluate solutions against objective criteria of optimality. It retains what proves workable in practice through recursive reinforcement. Partial integration does not implement a master design derived from comprehensive analysis. It assembles organizational form through local accommodations among heterogeneous elements. Mediated feedback does not provide transparent causal information that enables accurate representation. It offers opaque signals that guide calibration without full understanding.

This performative conception of knowledge aligns with recent developments in practice theory (Nicolini, 2012) and pragmatist philosophy (Ansell, 2011). It resonates with Rindova et al.’s (2023) argument that purpose is not discovered but constructed through imaginative practices that link current action to possible futures. It connects to Clough et al.’s (2020) demonstration that market realities are not simply observed but partly constituted through the infrastructures and practices through which firms engage with them.

The performative view does not imply that environmental conditions are infinitely malleable or that firms can construct any reality they imagine. Environments constrain and shape what firms can do. Platform architectures, algorithmic governance, ecosystem dependencies, and accumulated path dependencies all limit the range of viable action. But within those constraints, firms actively construct strategic order rather than discovering or selecting it. They build interpretations that enable action, develop practices that prove workable, and assemble organizational forms that sustain viability even when those forms depart from classical ideals of coherence and alignment.

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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