Studying performation: the arrangement of speech, calculation and writing acts within dispositifs: Carbon accounting for strategizing in a large corporation

International audienceThis paper aims at proposing an analytical framework for performation process that is performation through speech, calculation and writing acts connected within a “dispositif”. This analytical framework is put into practice in the case study of a French large corporation which has built a low-carbon strategy based on carbon accounting tools. We have found that low-carbon strategy is performed through carbon accounting tools since speech, calculation and writing acts are iterated and connected within a broader “dispositif” The theoretical contribution is first to suggest an analytical framework of the process by which « felicitous conditions » of a performative are realized, that is to say, its performation. The second theoretical contribution consists in linking the communicative school of performativity with management research focusing on instruments and strategic “dispositifs”. Finally, the empirical contribution involves an in-depth analysis of the low-carbon strategy’s implementation based on a carbon accounting tool in a French large company