Sensemaking in collaborative networks: Creating and balancing activities in open business models

The purpose of the study is to advance research on open business models as activity systems (Zott and Amit, 2010) in collaborative networks. We utilize Bradley’s (1995) theory of exchange behavior to discuss how new joint activities can be explored as well as how existing activities can be redesigned to strengthen the collaboration between companies. To enable this discussion we delve into the sensemaking literature and theory from loosely coupled systems. Our discussion leads to the development of the Balanced Activity System (BAS) model. The paper’s key contribution is the prescriptive BAS model that can be used strategically in collaborative networks to redesign or create new joint activities.