We advance current debates on authenticity byproviding a strategy-level examination of its emergence as a strategizingprocess composed of the strategists’ behaviors and narratives. Buildingconnections with the authenticity literature and adopting a stage performanceperspective inspired by aesthetic or theatre art, we investigate strategyauthenticity, which we refer to as the equilibrium of the dynamic mechanism ofchange constructed via the strategists’ behaviors and narratives, by asking howit emerges over time. Through a 12-month in-depth qualitative case study of thestrategizing process of a renowned UK business, we found that a strategy canbecome ‘inauthentic’ in the eyes of internal and external audiences (strategyreceivers) when the strategists’ behaviors and narrative conflict. Thesemismatches emerge in the form of feelings of strategy inauthenticity.These feelings of strategy inauthenticity switch between a latent andactive status with operational intensifiers. Our process model ofstrategy authenticity provides a revised view of authenticity in thestrategizing process and serves as a springboard for the strategists within theorganization to reconsider their performance by creating behaviorcompatibility and narrative conformity.

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