OSPM: A Design Methodology for Open Strategic Planning

Although numerous case studies and a body of theoretical work have addressed the open strategy topic (opening the strategy process to wider stakeholders groups) in the literature, approaches to implement open strategic planning has been less studied. In this study, the principles of design science research are employed, and pragmatic presuppositions from Habermas’ theory of discourse and the related literature are used to form a design methodology. The open strategic planning methodology contains a three-level architecture for a planning system, and a strategy process. The architecture component identifies three layers of the planning system. The planning process component explains a set of activities required to develop the strategic plan. The methodology is applied in two case studies and implementation challenges are discussed. This study contributes to the literature by introducing a comprehensive methodology of strategic planning and introduces new theoretical aspects to the field of open strategy.