A review of open strategy: bridging strategy and public management research

Strategy research has recently highlighted the need for ‘opening up’ strategy processes to enhance transparency and inclusiveness. Ideas of openness have long been embedded in public management, especially since the governance revolution. However, public management research on strategy processes has mostly neglected how strategy processes are ‘opened up’, rather examining the impact of strategy content and process characteristics on outcomes. By reviewing open strategy studies, this article discusses how organizations can open up their strategy processes. An activity-based theoretical framework centred on purpose, subject, community, object and practices of open strategy is applied and further developed to guide future research.