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.