Open Strategy and Information Technology

Open Strategy has drawn increasing attention in recent years. A growing number of studies have captured greater transparency and heightened inclusion in the strategic practices of contemporary organizations (e.g., Whittington et al., 2011; Hautz et al., 2017). It is often Information Technology (IT) that can facilitate involvement of a wider range of stakeholders in the generation of strategic content and knowledge (Chesbrough & Appleyard, 2007; Wulf & Butel, 2016), and in the practice of strategy (Whittington et al., 2011; Whittington, 2014). However, despite the widely recognized role of such technology as online platforms (Malhotra et al., 2017) and social media (Huang et al., 2013; Baptista et al., 2017) in enabling openness in strategy, literature with an explicit focus on IT has been surprisingly sparse to date (Tavakoli et al., 2015; 2017). Thus far, most papers have been published in Management and Strategic Management outlets (e.g., Whittington et al., 2011; Stieger et al., 2012; Seidl & Werle, 2017), including a special issue on Open Strategy in Long Range Planning (e.g., Hautz et al., 2017).