Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), Netherlands
We conducted a longitudinal case study of an interorganizational collaboration in the textiles and apparel industry. Our findings illuminate how the design of an interorganizational collaboration and the design methods used by orchestrators influenced interorganizational interactions and the development of circular business models strategies. We found that the articulation of potential strategies in interorganizational interactions depended significantly on the organizational design of the interorganizational collaboration. By zooming into one extended interaction, we elucidate recurring processes through which interorganizational actors engaged in possibilistic thinking – ‘speculative thought experiments’ (STEs) – to overcome challenges in adopting alternative new strategies. Embedded within the STE process are two microprocesses – contextualized problem framing and imaginative flights – that create several pathways to imagining future desired states. We theorize three inflection points that represent junctures either leading to generative capacity where imagined future states materialize or to stagnation where the actual present state persists. Our study makes novel contributions to the special issue by explicating the relationship between design and strategy in interorganizational settings. It also contributes to emerging literature on prospective theorizing as our model explicates mechanisms that encourage possibilistic thinking and the imagining of future-oriented strategic alternatives.
