The document discusses the concept of open strategy-making by organizations that engage external crowds and communities in their strategic processes, drawing lessons from the Wikimedia and Creative Commons initiatives. It highlights the necessity of incorporating external contributions and the variations in levels of openness in strategy-making practices, such as democratic and exclusive approaches. The research is based on extensive interviews and data from various organizations, showcasing how participatory techniques can impact strategy development.

1. Open Strategy-making Between Crowd and Community
Lessons from Wikimedia and Creative Commons
Conference “Organizing Crowds & Innovation“
Saïd Business School & Nuffield College, University of Oxford
October 30-31, 2015
Leonhard Dobusch
Freie Universität Berlin
Jakob Kapeller
Johannes Kepler University Linz

2. From Open Innovation…
§ Organizations increasingly rely on contributions by
external actors in innovation and beyond
(e.g. Baldwin & von Hippel, 2011; Dell’Era & Verganti, 2010; O’Mahony & Ferraro, 2007)
§ Open innovation is an ‘open strategy’but
not open strategy-making
(Chesbrough & Appleyard, 2007; Whittington et al. 2011)
>> strategically relevant ideas from external actors in
open innovation processes (e.g. Bayus 2013; Yoo et al. 2012)
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

3. …to Open Strategy-making
§ Organizations invite external actors to participate in
strategy-making processes
(Doz & Kosonen, 2008; Matzler et al. 2014)
§ Particularly important for organizations that already
rely on external crowds and communities
>> open strategy-making with different types of
external actors
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

4. Crowd! Community!
Public tasks of surveying and classify craters on Mars.
Kanefsky et al., 2001"
Community structure of modules in the apache project
González-Barahona et al., 2004"
Examples from: Müller-Birn, C.: How applicable are conditions for success in online peer-production communities for scientific communities?
Invited Talk. Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance, 11/2012
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller
Members interact and
self-identify as members
(Jarvenpaa & Lang, 2011; O’Mahony,
2007; O’Mahony & Lakhani, 2012)
Members share a common
practice in isolation
(Bonabeau, 2009; Jeppesen & Lakhani,
2010; Surowiecki, 2004)

5. Research Question
How do organizations that rely on
contributions by crowds and communities
perform open strategy-making?
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

6. § U.S. Non-Profit with network of
100+ affiliate organizations
§ Provides set of alternative copyright
licenses
§ Community of copyright lawyers
§ Crowd of Creative Commons
license users
§ U.S. charitable organization with
network of 40+ chapter associations
§ Provides infrastructure for
Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc.
§ Community of volunteer
contributors („Wikipedians“)
§ Crowd of Wikipedia readers
Case Comparison
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller
Data:
~100 semi-structured interviews, mailing-lists, wikis and websites

7. Community of
Wikipedians
Wikimedia
Crowd of
Creative
Commons
license users
Creative
Commons
formal organization community
Crowd of
Wikipedia
readers
crowd
Community of
copyright lawyers
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

8. Open Strategy Initiatives
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller
2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 20102009
Initiative CC#2:
Defining NCInitiative CC#1: Explaining NC
2004 2011
Initiative CC#3:
Versioning NC
2012
Initiative
WM#2:
Strategy
Process
Initiative
WM#1:
Relicensing
Initiative WM#3:
SOPA/PIPA
Protest
Foundation of
Creative Commons
Foundation of
Wikipedia
Foundation of
Wikimedia
Launch of CC
licenses 1.0

9. Data set CC1:
52 interviews
Strategy initiative CC#1:
Explaining NC
Case Selection Categorization
Data Sets Strategy
Practices
Data set CC2:
2 mailing-lists
Strategy initiative CC#2:
Defining NC
Reporting practices
- Collecting opinions from
external actors
- Collecting suggestions
Democratic practices
- Registering voters
- Voting
Exclusive practices
- Condensing suggestions and
communicating decisions
Data set CC3:
website/wiki pages
Strategy initiative CC#3:
Versioning NC
Data set WM1:
47 interviews
Strategy initiative WM#1:
Re-licensing
Strategy initiative WM#2:
Strategy process
Data set WM3:
website/wiki pages
Strategy initiative WM#3:
SOPA/PIPA protest
CreativeCommonsWikimedia
Data set WM2:
1 mailing-list
Reviewing practices
- Reporting of and exchange
on different interpretations
and applications
- Negotiating interpretations
and objectives
- Discussing suggestions
- Petitioning

10. Open Strategy-making Practices
Emerging open strategy-making
practices
Practice
category
Description
Degree of
Openness
-- Condensing suggestions and
communicating decisions
Exclusive
practices
Centralized
strategizing
very low
-- Collecting opinions from external
actors
-- Collecting suggestions
Reporting
practices
unidirectional
provision of inputs
-- Reporting of and exchange on
different interpretations and
applications
-- Negotiating interpretations and
objectives
-- Discussing suggestions
-- Petitioning
Reviewing
practices
interactive
discourse on
strategy-making
-- Registering voters
-- Voting
Democratic
practices
transfer of decision
power to external
actors
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller
very high

11. Example WM#3: SOPA/PIPA Protests
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller
§ Reporting: proposals for protest activities
§ Reviewing: discussions on Wikipedia
§ Democratic: publicly support or oppose
§ Exclusive: definite decision made by HQ

12. Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller
Crowds and Communities in a Continuum
of Openness in Strategy-making

13. Discussion & Conclusion
Greater variety of strategy-making practices:
§ Intensified interaction but also loss of control
§ Different practices with crowds and communities
Variants of closure in open strategy-making:
§ Mostly: exclusive practices for decision-making…
§ …but also: democratic practices as alternatives
Communities actively seek participation:
§ Interlinking actors to transform crowds in
communities?
Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

14. Thank you.