In our cross-industry Open Foresight and Open Strategy projects, which are conducted in cooperation with the Linz Center of Mechatronics and international companies, participating stakeholders address the following key strategic management questions: "How do companies position themselves in response to the emergence of emerging technologies?" and "What strategic options and challenges does the Circular Economy offer?"

These cross-company & cross-industry collaboration processes provide an ideal research topic to study different dynamics and effects in open processes. We are particularly fascinated by the roles of so-called "use cases" (prototypes, or product demonstrations) in the sensemaking process and the influence of temporality (near versus distant future, abstract versus concrete content) in assessing the strategic relevance of emergent technologies and developments (such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, or API economy).