Cool Factory: Recurrent Change as Strategy for Advantage

Abstract

This field study at a project led by a pioneering design studio builds theory about how cool factories reconfigure dynamic capabilities to sustain their positions as avant-garde leaders. Working from three years of participant observation and unstructured interviews with key informants, I draw on the resource-based-view in strategy to observe and explain an organizational response to imitation that mirrors the wider creative industry imperative to recurrently change the offering. The study reveals that members exploit slack and simultaneously engage in the exploration of new opportunities on the same project, which is recognizable in routines for slack cultivation, adaptation and creative experimentation.