Despite the growing knowledge on open strategy, we are still lacking any empirical evidence of why and how it might be adopted as a mean for conducting institutional work. As such, we engage in a case study that delves into the context-driven work that aims to change research culture across the UK higher education field. Through informing our analysis with interview data, secondary data, and theory, we uncover three instances of institutional work: the discourse of field ideology change, disruption through embracing openness, and enactment by mobilizing the community. By unravelling detailed accounts of the reasoning behind the need for change, the premises for choosing openness, and the practices that institutions employed, we reconstruct the process of institutional change while attending to both, the context, and, causal mechanisms.
