How open has the practice of strategic planning been? A qualitative meta-analysis of case studies

With two principles of transparency and inclusiveness, open strategy is a new paradigm in strategic planning. Although the term has recently entered the related literature, there are several practices of strategic planning which used similar approach for strategic and long-range planning. Moreover, openness in both dimensions of transparency and inclusiveness is introduced as continuums (and not a binary state). Considering the above facts, this chapter aims to study previous practices of strategic planning and evaluate the openness of their approach. To achieve this goal, the authors used qualitative meta-analysis approach and searched for case studies of strategic planning in 15 high-ranking journals of management and business. The first search resulted in more than 400 papers and after several rounds of filtering; the authors found 35 case studies which explained case study of the strategy process. This study found five different categories of stakeholders which have already included in case studies as well as seven different activities which they performed as part of strategy process. Moreover, the authors recognized four patterns with regards to transparency of the plan which are open planning process, open plan, open to staff plan, and proprietary plan.