On September 30, 2024, the 2nd Workshop on Decentralized Open Forms of Organizing (DFO) took place at JKU Business School, organized by Johannes Winkler and Waldemar Kremser from the JKU - Institute for Strategic Management. The event brought together an interdisciplinary group of researchers to exchange ideas and develop a shared understanding of DFOs.

The workshop included two presentations on current research in this field. Nils Augustin from the University of Innsbruck presented his work on "Sustaining Participation in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: The Role of Value Distribution". Thomas Grisold from the University of St. Gallen followed with his research on "Mechanisms of Social Influence in Online Communities: Evidence from Open Source Software Development".

An interactive part of the event was a group exercise in which twelve experts positioned various DFO types inside, at the edge, or outside a circle to illustrate how closely they believed these forms aligned with decentralized and open organizational principles. This exercise encouraged participants to explore different perspectives and examine the complexity of decentralized forms of organizing.

Special thanks to Barbara Hammer and Silke Desl from the JKU - Institute for Strategic Management, whose support was crucial for the successful execution of the workshop.
The event also benefited from the active contributions of participants, including Oliver Alexy (Technical University of Munich), Laura Dobusch (Vienna University of Economics and Business), Leonhard Dobusch (University of Innsbruck), Andreas Eckhardt (University of Innsbruck), Theresa Füreder (Johannes Kepler University Linz), Milena Leybold (Johannes Kepler University Linz), Viktoria Mayr (Technical University of Ilmenau), Georg Reischauer (Johannes Kepler University Linz / Vienna University of Economics and Business), and Markus Reitzig (University of Vienna), whose input added significant value to the discussions.

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As a possible response to the challenges of the climate crisis, various circular economy initiatives are currently emerging in many parts of the business world. In most cases, these projects are driven bottom-up by the personal commitment of individual ‘champions’ who are passionate about the topic. However, it is not uncommon for such projects to fail due to a lack of support from top management. 

What happens if we reverse this pattern and ensure the support of top management? This is what we at the Institute for Strategic Management, together with the Competence Centre for Circular Economy at the Institute of Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen and the Linz Center of Mechatronics, want to investigate. We will accompany top managers and sustainability specialists from various companies from the DACH region (including BASF, Erwin Hymer, Siemens, Swiss Prime Site, Zumtobel Group) as they explore and define current and future challenges in the field of the circular economy and develop joint solutions!

The kick-off in picturesque St. Gallen was already a complete success: exciting discussions, gripping presentations and the formulation of initial goals!

We (Prof.ⁱⁿ Regina Gattringer, Fabio Damm) would like to thank the team of the Competence Centre for Circular Economy (Prof.ⁱⁿ Karoline Frankenberger, Dr. Fabian Takacs, Mag.^a Anna-Sophia Burch), the Linz Center of Mechatronics (Dr. Johannes Klinglmayr) and the top managers of the companies for the successful kick-off. We are already looking forward to the further course of the project!

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