Right on time - Socioecological strategy and implications of turbulence in the Swiss watchmaking field

Jonas Hoffmann, Rafael Ramirez and Laurent Lecamp

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2018, vol. 137, issue C, 101-117

Abstract: We explore how the socio-ecological approach to strategy extends and enriches current theory on fields (especially Fligstein and McAdam, 2012). We do so with a socio-ecological (Ramirez and Selsky, 2016) lens which helps us analyse how contention and change work in conditions of turbulence, conditions where macro-level issues play a central role in transforming a field. Our empirical exploration of the Swiss watchmaking field in its current turbulent causal texture enables us to examine the locus of strategic action (intra-field vs inter-field) by both incumbents and challengers, and how they enact the strategic stances of preparation, relocating and reinventing collaboration. With this lens we also analyse the roles a legacy technology can play in the framing-reframing contention, where incumbents favour an ‘intra-field’ framing (i.e. centred in the legacy technology) whereas challengers favour an ‘inter-field’ reframing (i.e. open to emerging technologies). Our research further contributes to the literature by providing a clarification of the Ramirez and Selsky (2016) strategic stances in relation to its core unit of analysis: field-level vs organizational-level vs inter-organizational network level and does so with empirical data.

Keywords: Theory of fields; Socio-ecological approach to strategy; Technological change; Turbulence; Watchmaking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:137:y:2018:i:c:p:101-117

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.06.047

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