Strategising practices in an informal economy setting: A case of strategic networking

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2016
Authors
Darbi, W.P.K.
Knott, P.
Abstract

Despite the increasing interest in strategy as situated practice, studies that examine strategising practices in the informal economy are lacking. This article draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice to understand strategic networking practices in an informal economy setting. Employing ethnographic techniques, it sets out to study how an informal business and its network partners do strategic networking. We found that their strategic networking practices pivot around co-opetition, and are characterised within four interconnected themes: open communication, mutual surrogacy, fraternal engagement and naturalisation. These themes are constitutive of an interrelated set of field-specific practices, capital, habitus and dispositions of the informal business and its network partners. The study contributes to strategy-as-practice and strategic networking literatureby showing how actors adopt and internalise strategising practices, and how this predisposition may be traced to strategic networking practices, choices and outcomes.

Description
Citation
Darbi, W.P.K., Knott, P. (2016) Strategising practices in an informal economy setting: A case of strategic networking. European Management Journal, (In Press).
Keywords
strategy as practice, informal economy, informal sector, informal business, strategic networks, Ghana
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::15 - Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services::1503 - Business and Management::150312 - Organisational Planning and Management
Field of Research::17 - Psychology and Cognitive Sciences::1701 - Psychology::170107 - Industrial and Organisational Psychology
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License