Strategy Creation and Development by Employees: Case Study in a Japanese MNC’s R&D Center

This qualitative study examines the dynamics within a research and development (R&D) center of a Japanese multinational corporation (MNC) to understand how employees autonomously create and develop strategies within team settings, from the strategy-as-practice (SAP) perspective. By adopting a sense-making lens, we identified several key findings. First, employees comprising a team give significant importance to engaging in consensus-based decision-making meetings before and during strategic activities, as these meetings serve as foundational elements in constructing shared cognition within the team. Second, the director and specialists within the center were found to play a key and influential role in facilitating the execution of SAP activities. Third, two of the three teams under investigation expanded their strategic activities beyond the limits of the center to encompass broader, company-wide strategic initiatives. These findings underscore the significance of the SAP activities conducted by employees.