Quality is interpretivism: a proposition for overcoming the possible bias against qualitative research in strategy

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the interpretive approach as a promising option for the study of organizational phenomena. More specifically, a leverage of qualitative-interpretivist rigor is proposed for the studies developed in the field of business strategy, where the dominance of a positivist tendency is perceived in spite of the growing argument for more explanative designs. Therefore, the article raises some critical issues for the evolution of interpretative research in this branch of knowledge, culminating with a discussion of the dimensions that strategy acquires through this approach. The outlines of the strategy-as-practice perspective are offered as a way of integrating the arguments in order to have strategy as a contextual, fluid and continuous activity. The adoption of new expectations and assumptions consistent with the interpretive tradition is discussed as a way of responding to the distance between theory and practice, a historical challenge in the field of strategy.

Key words: strategy, interpretivism, epistemology, strategy-as-practice.