Strategic planning as practice : in a logistics family firm context

Although SMEs and especially family firms are highly influencing the economy of most countries, there has not been a sophisticated amount of research covering this field. This master thesis set out to widen the understanding of strategy as practice perspective in a family firm context. This perspective, which could gain an increasing followership over the last years, should support academics to develop an understanding of actual strategy making at a family business context. These practices of strategy appear to vary from firm to firm, since each company develops unique rules of game. Strategic planning as one part of strategy as practices perspective should be in focus of this thesis. By combining in-depth literature analysis of strategy as practice perspective and strategic planning theory with several months of empirical research, the author hoped one the side to solidify the proposed three dimensional model of Nordqvist and Melin (2010) and on the other side to further enhance that model. Both goals could be achieved over the discourse of the study. The focal firm not only confirms the three dimensions: planning modes, planning motives and planning arenas, but also revealed the emergence of a fourth dimension the so-called planning impulses. Furthermore, the author uncovered a salient aspect of the four dimensions by adding the existence of networks and their effect on the organization to the equation. This contribution to the strategic planning theory as well as the strategy as practice perspective can help researcher to further comprehend the actual strategy making practices of family firms