The purpose of the paper is to explore university strategizing by means of examining academic managers narratives relate to institutional strategy. This main objective is explored in two parts: theoretically it draws on connections of concepts such as managerialism, governance and market orientation with the way institutional strategies are formulated and implemented in higher education institutions. Empirically, the approach taken is narrative and discursive analysis, based on a case study in a Spanish public university. This analytical scheme is based on a systematic exploration of the main factors considered to be responsible for enabling or constraining strategy implementation.