Toward a social practice theory of relational competing

Abstract

Research Summary: This article brings together the competitive dynamics and strategy-as-practice literatures to investigate relational competition. Drawing on a global ethnography of the reinsurance market, we develop the concept of micro-competitions, which are the focus of competitors' everyday competitive practices. We find variation in relational or rivalrous competition by individual competitors across the phases of a micro-competition, between competitors within a micro-competition, and across multiple micro-competitions. These variations arise from the interplay between the unfolding competitive arena and the implementation of each firm's strategic portfolio. We develop a conceptual framework that makes four contributions to: relational competition; reconceptualizing action and response; elaborating on the awarenessmotivation-capability framework within competitive dynamics; and the recursive dynamic by which implementing strategy inside firms shapes, and is shaped by, the competitive arena. Managerial Summary: Competition is often seen as war: "attack," "retaliation," and "dethronement." Yet competition can also be relational, incorporating collaboration and reciprocity. We show these dynamics in a syndicated financial market, reinsurance, where multiple competitors get the same price for a share of the same deal. Our competitors have rivalrous motivations to win business and relational motivations to ensure buoyant pricing, maintain market health, and enable long-standing client relationships to persist. These motivations are grounded in the strategizing practices with which firms implement their strategic portfolios and compete on deals. Competitors' rivalrous or relational motivations are highly dynamic, shifting throughout the competition on any deal and *The first and second authors contributed equally to this publication.

A geographic relational perspective on the internationalization of emerging market firms

“…In particular, by demonstrating the bounded space of local managers or the local involvement of other individuals, practice offers a nuanced view on localization in EMF internationalization (Bjerregaard & Klitmoller, 2016). For instance, as social structures and shared meanings are transmitted through practice, mutually understood and agreed-upon practices help individuals create group cohesion and communications to recognize local concerns and manage differences (Jarzabkowski & Bednarek, 2018;Wenger, 1998).…”

“…In sum, by focusing on explaining social phenomena in a processual way as accomplished locally by reflexive actors, the dimension of practice contributes to a geographic relational approach in terms of the questions it asks and the answers it provides (Jarzabkowski & Bednarek, 2018;Jones, 2014). Understanding practice requires both qualitative and quantitative analysis (Lounsbury & Crumley, 2007).…”

“…Importantly, an investigation on decisions of individual actors in their everyday actions and interactions reveals processes that help to explain dynamics in strategy formulation and implementation. Overall, micro-level work on EMF internationalization has yet to proliferate, although we have seen its growth in the strategy literature (Jarzabkowski & Bednarek, 2018). 2 In summary, our critical reading of the EMF literature from a problematization lens has identified three reasons why a strategic decision framing of EMF internationalization may have hindered future research.…”

Internationalization Via Instagram: An Exploratory Study of Small and Medium Enterprises

“…To provide a framework to explore Instagram as a micro practice of interactive value formation, we draw on practice theory to drive the current research. The interactive value formation at the provider-customer interface has been studied from the theoretical lens of practice-theory perspective (see Echeverri & Skålén, 2011;Jarzabkowski & Bednarek, 2018;Makkonen, Olkkonen, & Halinen, 2012;Perera, Anger, & Klein, 2018). In this paper, as Shove (2004), Perera et al, (2018), Ropke (2009) have argued practice theory can be applied to understand environmental consumption, we apply practice theory to the understanding of internationalization of SME exports via Instagram usage.…”

Designing the Tools of the Trade: How corporate social responsibility consultants and their tool-based practices created market shifts

“…Organizational studies of markets have produced accounts of market construction that focus either on how calculative tools are involved in market making (Giamporcaro & Gond, 2016; Poon, 2009) or on how multiple actors’ relational practices influence the competitive dynamics (Jarzabkowski & Bednarek, 2018) or social structure of markets (McKague, Zietsma, & Oliver, 2015). Although these studies have shown that both toolmaking (Callon, 1998; Fourcade, 2007) and organizational practices (Ahrne, Aspers, & Brunsson, 2015) play a role in market making, scholars have rarely cross-fertilized insights from these two streams of studies.…”