7. Strategic Process of Change: A Multiple Network Game—The Rohner Textil Case

Few companies have successfully undertaken wholesale change to embed corporate responsibility for sustainable development into their organization and business model. Existing cases suggest this change involves companies in complex processes of organizational and social learning, innovation, and change that play out within a range of different networks of relationships. This chapter examines Rohner Textil, a company that embarked on strategic change toward a more sustainable approach. The organizational and social processes and steps the company went through are described. The case highlights the critical interaction between the company and other actors through three different networks: an industrial network and a knowledge network, which provided new concepts for inspiration, and an internal network of ideas and actions, which would help define and shape change. We argue that the success of the company was dependent on the ability of management to effect organizational leadership in and through these three types of networks. The case provides evidence of what that involved and points to the complexity of the tasks performed in these action-learning networks. It is argued that companies working for change toward sustainable development can be better understood through an action-learning network model of innovation and change.