Sociomateriality and strategy-as-practice: taking technology seriously and applying actor-network theory

This paper responds directly to the call for strategy-as-practice research to more intently focus on 'the stuff of strategizing, the material artefacts, objects, tools and technologies which are part and parcel of the social practice of strategy' (Sub-theme call for papers). In taking the 'stuff of strategizing' seriously, and in deepening the accounts of 'practices' (Jarzabkowski and Whittington 2008) offered by strategy-as-practice approaches, we argue that technology is especially important. In the process of considering how technology might best be understood in strategy-as-practice research we advocate a sociomaterial lens. We seek to demonstrate the potential utility of a sociomaterial approach to strategy-as-practice research through the analysis of an empirical case of strategic change at a manufacturing organisation in which strategizing activity was mediated by technological artefacts. We explore the implications of the analysis, and of sociomaterial approaches to technology implementations more generally, for strategy-as-practice research.