Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present insights into operations strategy (OS) in practice. It outlines a conceptualization and model of OS processes and, based on findings from an in‐depth and longitudinal case study, contributes to further development of extant OS models and methods which presently mainly focus on OS content, as distinct from process issues.Design/methodology/approach: The methodology combines action research and a longitudinal single site case study of OS processes in practice.Findings: The paper conceptualises an OS process as: events of dialogue and action; taking place in five dimensions of change – technical‐rational, cultural, political, project management, and facilitation; and typically unfolding as a sequential and parallel, ordered and disordered, planned and emergent as well as top‐down and bottom‐up process. The proposed OS conceptualization provides a useful tool for describing and analyzing real‐time OS processes unfolding in practice.Research limitations/implications: The research is based on a single case, which limits the generalizability of the findings.Practical implications: The findings suggest that, in order to obtain successful outcomes for an OS process in practice, change agents may need to moderate their outcome ambitions, manage process dimensions and agendas in a situational manner, balance inherent process paradoxes, strive at bridging both language and reality, as well as mobilizing key stakeholders, especially middle managers, throughout the process.Originality/value: The paper proposes a novel conceptualization of the OS process derived from the literature in relevant areas and findings obtained through longitudinal action research of an OS formulation and implementation process.

Hybrid organisations have been touted as solutions to a range of societal problems. In a construction context, strategic partnerships, as a particular type of hybrid organisation, have given promises of increased productivity and innovation through business models combining logics and governance structures from both the public and private sectors. Little is however known about how strategic partnerships are established and develop throughout their lifespan by combining different logics in response to institutional complexity. Drawing on a study of a public client’s efforts to create cost efficient services, we analyse the formation of two strategic partnerships as emerging hybrid organisations in the intersection between a market logic, a project logic, a community logic, and an administrative logic. It is shown how different logics are mobilised in the dynamic shaping of the partnerships in response to moments of institutional complexity. On this background, we discuss how the contours of two different forms of hybrid organisation emerged, even though the partnerships initially operated and responded similarly to the institutional demands. On this basis, it is concluded that strategic partnerships can be seen as “trading zones” that follow different trajectories in coping with institutional demands, and hence the development of hybrid organisational forms.