Open Strategy

Open Strategy
A Micro-level Perspective on Psychological Antecedents and Implementation Consequences

This research project aims to explore the micro-level antecedents and consequences of open strategy. Open strategy, that is a new phenomenon in strategy research and practice, is defined along two dimensions: transparency and inclusion. Opening up thereby means organizations on the one side increase their levels of transparency by providing more strategic information to their employees, stakeholders or shareholders. On the other side organizations as well include more actors in their strategy processes. In doing so, organizations can expect several positive consequences that include (1) more creative strategies though more diverse perspectives that are included in the process of formulating strategies; (2) the identification of strategy talents; or (3) the legitimization of executives’ decisions. It is as well argued that through including a wider variety of actors, this results in improved strategy implementation consequences on an individual level. Participants thereby build stronger commitment, better understanding, and consensus, as well as more ownership. With this project we are specifically interested in such micro-level mechanisms of opening up the strategy process and associated antecedents and outcomes. In our research projects we therefore collaborate and scientifically accompany organizations in their approaches towards opening their strategy processes. Problems and research questions are thereby related to antecedents, practices, and consequences visible in the graph. Two key questions are:

• How do individual-level factors influence the adoption of openness?
• How does openness in the strategy process impact strategy implementation?

The project aims to contribute to current academic research by providing more detailed results in who and how open strategy is initiated and applied in organizations and what organizations and executives can expect on the individual-level implementation consequences. We therefore as well provide practical implications for organizations in how to develop open strategy initiatives in order to best utilize the benefits that can be expected through more open strategy processes.