Beyond network pictures: Situational strategizing in network context

Abstract

The present study combines industrial marketing and purchasing research on network pictures with a practice perspective of strategy research to examine strategizing by small firm managers in a network context. Network pictures are framed to function as a part of a situational mechanism of strategy formation, a dynamic process of emergence at the intersection of cognitive interpretation and network-embedded acting. The situational mechanism is presented and the theoretical framework further elaborated through a case study of three small software firms. As a result, the situational mechanism of strategy formation is discussed in relation to how small firm managers make sense of change in industrial networks and reflect it in the strategic activities of their firms.