Plotnikova, A orcid.org/0000-0002-8210-4609, Pandza, K orcid.org/0000-0002-6807-1812 and Sales-Cavalcante, H (2021) How Strategy Professionals Develop and Sustain an Online Strategy Community: The Lessons from Ericsson. Long Range Planning, 54 (5). 102015. ISSN 0024-6301
Abstract
In this paper, we report on an in-depth and inductive study of strategy professionals that proactively initiated, developed and sustained an online community dedicated to continuously engaging with issues of strategic relevance for the company Ericsson. We identified the design of an online community structure, cooperation of internal and external actors with diverse expertise and from different hierarchical levels, and formulation of adequate strategic content, as the three main decision areas that strategy professionals have to consider carefully. The detailed empirical analysis enabled us to expose characteristic interdependencies among decisions and contradictory demands that make open strategy processes a paramount organizational challenge. We argue that organizing of such collective action transforms professional strategists from expert planners and analysts into managers that centralize responsibility for decisions affecting a) permeability of community boundaries for different types of community members; b) incentive mechanisms that mobilize participation and stimulate knowledge sharing across hierarchical levels, and c) framing of strategic content needed to integrate fragmented contributions, often less aligned with strategic frames of senior managers, into actionable strategic initiatives.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020, Elsevier. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of an article published in Long Range Planning. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Management Division (LUBS) (Leeds) > Management Division Strategy and Organisation (LUBS) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 Jul 2020 13:41 |
Last Modified: | 30 Jul 2022 00:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.lrp.2020.102015 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:162977 |