Sustainability Strategy Formation - Pause and Make Sense to Get Forward

Abstract: One of the main questions within strategy research is how strategies form. Previous research has though been shaped by top management and internal biases, largely neglecting the role of lower level and external practitioners in strategy formation. Furthermore, there is a gap regarding how sustainability strategies form. We seek to fill these gaps based on a study of strategy formation at a Swedish garment retailer. In addition to highlighting the centrality of lower level and external practitioners, we argue that theories of sensemaking can enrich the strategy-as-practice literature and provide a useful framework for understanding the connections between practitioners. We show how daily, collective and strategic level sensemaking (based on different praxis and practices) shape strategy formation. Finally, we argue that pauses to collect and sift the activities are central for strategic level sensemaking and that it is when sensemaking occurs on a strategic level that it becomes a strategy.