Title: Strategic change and narrative turn perspectives in media texts: learning and coopetition in strategising

Authors: Rauno Rusko

Addresses: Faculty of Social Sciences, Management and Organizations, University of Lapland, P.O.B. 122, FI96101 Rovaniemi, Finland

Abstract: For consultants, media texts are a channel to market their services, capabilities and knowledge. Media texts are a significant tool for participating and directing the general pulse of management and strategising. This study follows a narrative turn in emphasising the importance of micro-stories in strategising and strategy research. An empirical analysis of media texts on the web about strategic change revealed that today's professional consultants are expressing more cooperation-based perspectives compared with competition-based perspectives. However, because the main paradigm of societies and economies is competition, the general underlying tendency is based on the tension between competition and cooperation (coopetition). Furthermore, media texts show that strategising is not based on top-down management, but on empowerment processes where the participants are discussing and even deciding the aims of the organisation. In addition, this study concerns the relationship between knowledge management, theory in use and strategy as practice, providing some implications.

Keywords: intra-organisational coopetition; emergent strategy; organisational learning; theory-in-use; SAP; strategy as practice; strategic change; narrative turn; strategic change; media texts; blogs; web chat; web comments; competition; cooperation; strategising; knowledge management; strategy consultants.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCM.2015.069521

International Journal of Strategic Change Management, 2015 Vol.6 No.1, pp.35 - 58

Received: 03 Jun 2014
Accepted: 11 Feb 2015
Published online: 20 May 2015 *

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