The third edition of the Open Strategy Workshop brought the global community to the University of Innsbruck for two energizing days of exchange between research and practice.
The organizing team - Thomas Ortner and Julia Hautz from the Institute for Strategic Management and Leadership, and Leonhard Dobusch and Leonie Sauer from the Institute for Organisation and Learning - welcomed in total 77 participants and curated a program that combined scholarly rigor with immersive experiences.
Academic input and an exciting evening programme
The formal workshop agenda featured several program items. Thursday morning began with a paper development workshop where PhD and early scholars received roundtable feedback from senior scholars including David Seidl (University of Zurich), Violetta Splitter (University of Oxford), Josh Morton (University of Leeds), Leonhard Dobusch, and Christian Stadler (University of Innsbruck).
After lunch, the official kick off was led by Prof. Dr. Ali Aslan Gümüsay (LMU Munich) who presented a keynote on prospective theorizing and what open strategy and strategy-as-practice can learn from future making research. This was followed by the first poster session covering 18 posters - including research outlines for a upcoming Special Issue on Open Strategy in the Journal of Research in the Sociology of Organization -, and the first practitioner panel on "Open Strategy in a non-profit context" with Mary-Jane Stolp (The Bridge Incl.) and Andrew Bird (University of Sydney & Foundstone Advisor).
The Thursday evening program showcased Innsbruck's Olympic legacy with a private dinner atop the Bergisel ski jump tower, a hands-on start-ramp experience with a live ski jump demonstration, and delicious food with inspiring conversations.
Early-career scholars opened Friday's programme
On Friday, a panel on "Young voices on Open Strategy" saw early scholars Kristina Stoiber (TU Munich), Monica Nadegger (LMU Munich), Julian Just (University of Innsbruck), and Christoph Brielmaier (University of Bamberg) shared current projects, thoughts, and future directions for the field. Afterwards, the second poster session comprised 16 posters, allowing for diverse and insightful exchange.
The panel "Young voices on Open Strategy"
After that, the practitioner panel "Open Strategy in tough times" featured Christoph Jandl (HENNgineered) on using enterprise social media for strategic transparency during industry transitions, and Tom Van der Lubbe (Viisi) on adapting radical transparency and distributed decision-making in a financial crisis. To wrap up, former and future workshop organizers from the UK and Finland competed in an "Open Strategy Family Feud," helping the participants to collectively learn more about the Open Strategy Community.
The 2026 workshop strengthened the field on Open Strategy, advanced (doctoral) projects, and deepened ties with practitioners - allowing to advance the bridge between ideas and impact in the field of Open Strategy.
