The previous chapters have argued for the importance of taking a closer look at strategy as it is practised in the day-to-day work of organization members. They have also examined some of the theoretical frameworks that might be mobilized to understand these activities. So far, however, we have provided little guidance as to how research based on such a perspective might proceed. How do we research strategy practice empirically?

The simple and most obvious answer to this question is that we must ‘go out and look’, i.e. find ways to capture such activity as it occurs so that it can be examined closely and understood. Like many simple and obvious answers, however, this hides a multitude of complex issues that we attempt to explore and clarify in more depth in this chapter. To do so, we draw both on our own experience, on the methods literature, and on the illustrative papers that form the central core of this book.

We begin this exploration by arguing that in-depth and largely qualitative data are a central requirement for developing the Strategy as Practice perspective. Qualitative approaches are often recommended when relatively little is known about an area of study or when a fresh perspective is needed, as is certainly the case here (Eisenhardt 1989b). However, perhaps more importantly, the nature of the phenomenon itself – dynamic, complex, involving intense human interaction – demands an approach that can capture these features empirically (Patton 2002). Cross-sectional questionnaires and quantitative data bases based on a priori categories are not really up to the task, at least not on their own.