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

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.

The Relationships Between Technological Turbulence, Flow Experience, Innovation Performance and Small Firm Growth

“…Hence, our study contributes to the entrepreneurship and technological forecasting literature by conducting the empirical research among two groups of companies: the ones that perceive high technological turbulence and the ones that perceive low technological turbulence (Fernández et al, 2010) not necessarily related to the high-tech industry, since technological turbulence may be perceived also in other sectors (Bodlaj et al, 2012). Additionally, Hoffmann, Ramirez, and Lecamp (2018) argue that technological turbulence is not homogenous within the whole industry and that is experienced differently by different people, contingent on their "perceived adaptive capacity" to cope.…”

Efecto de la turbulencia tecnológica generada por la inteligencia artificial en la innovación de producto: el papel de la orientación estratégica a la digitalización

“…La turbulencia tecnológica suele crear alteraciones que fuerzan a las compañías a apropiarse de nuevas tendencias y puede verse como una amenaza cuando aquellas tendencias se presentan como disruptivas (Martin et al, 2020). Se puede decir que la turbulencia tecnológica puede afectar a toda una industria, pero no en igual medida a todas las compañías, pues esto depende de qué tanta capacidad de adaptación tengan las empresas (Hoffmann et al, 2018).…”

“…La turbulencia tecnológica generada por la inteligencia artificial puede impactar directamente los procesos creativos de las compañías mediante un mejor conocimiento del ambiente en el que están inmersas (Arias-Pérez & Cepeda-Cardona, 2022;Ogbeibu et al, 2020). Lo anterior es particularmente importante cuando las empresas desarrollan suficiente flexibilidad para adaptarse a los cambios rápidamente, para poder sobrevivir en el mercado (Hoffmann et al, 2018;Abbas & Hassan, 2017). En este sentido, las empresas que hacen parte de sectores relacionados con alta tecnología tienden a tener una mayor presión del mercado para innovar (Chen et al, 2018;Shan & Jolly, 2013).…”

Perceived environmental turbulence and corporate strategy: The case of the UK recession

“…However, the majority of these studies (Balabanis & Spyropoulou, 2007; Rueda‐Manzanares et al, 2008) consider the environment a contingency factor of the strategy‐performance relation. At the same time, research has determined that environmental turbulence can impact both the strategy process (Hoffmann et al, 2018; Li et al, 2022) and content (Anderson & Tushman, 2001; Gemici & Zehir, 2021; Roper & Tapinos, 2017).…”