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Chapter 16 - A Social Network Perspective on Open Strategy

from Part IV - Theoretical Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2019

By
Julia Hautz
Edited by
David Seidl ,
Georg von Krogh  and
Richard Whittington
David Seidl
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Georg von Krogh
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal University (ETH), Zürich
Richard Whittington
Affiliation:
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
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Summary

Social network theory has been suggested to offer a particularly suitable perspective for studying both the emergence of increased openness in strategy processes as well as its consequences at multiple levels (Hautz, 2017; Hautz et al., 2017). Social network research and analysis have featured in the social sciences for nearly a century (Borgatti et al., 2009), but their application in an organizational context has increased significantly in recent years, undergoing exponential growth (Borgatti & Foster, 2003; Phelps et al., 2012). This dramatic increase is part of a general shift of research toward more relational, contextual, and systemic understandings (Borgatti & Foster, 2003). In this context, social networks offer a diverse repertoire of theories and frameworks to describe, analyze, and explain the behaviors and consequences that emerge from increased transparency and inclusion in strategy processes. These two dimensions of Open Strategy are based on concepts central to the network perspective, as they refer to increased internal and external transfer of strategic information and to external and internal exchange of information, views, and proposals intended to shape the continued evolution of an organization’s strategy (Whittington et al., 2011; Hautz et al., 2017).

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Cambridge Handbook of Open Strategy , pp. 272 - 288
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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