Each enterprise operates within a specific value network, comprising a nested network of producers and market users. Similarly, educational institutions have processes for developing and delivering teaching and learning to their students within a complex educational market. There are technologies that will enhance the performance of existing processes, and conceivably there are technologies that could result in a new value network from both an economic and a pedagogical perspective. Christensen’s (2003) seminal research identified the notion of “disruptive technologies” that are closely aligned with certain types of innovation because they result in new market propositions that did not exist before. Providing free learning opportunities using digital technologies and courses based solely on OER, combined with a global network that can accredit these OER learners, is potentially a disruptive innovation. That said, the 13 founding anchor partners of the OERu network have agreed to implement this model in an incremental way. Therefore, the OERu network partners will have a competitive advantage above those institutions which prefer not to integrate OER into their delivery models. The strategic approach is to create an environment for all institutions to consider the integration of OER approaches in order to remain “competitive” within their own markets. In this way, the OER Foundation achieves its strategic mission to assist all institutions in mainstreaming OER adoption. The New Zealand case study gives rise to the question of the relative merit of evolutionary versus revolutionary policy change. On the one hand, evolutionary change is stable, predictable and easier to manage. Also, assuming that organisations, society and the economy can maintain a sustained series of incremental changes, the combined effect of these minor changes may collectively come to represent fundamental transformation. On the other hand, revolutionary transformation may be a necessary catalyst to push organisations through turbulent times associated with far-reaching changes in their respective operational environments. In such a situation, the absence of radical change strategies and corresponding policy interventions may impact negatively on the continued success and efficiency of the education sector. It is difficult to know which strategy to recommend. However, it appears that successful organisations are those that have the capacity “to perceive evolutionary and revolutionary change as faces of the same coin, and to recognize when each is appropriate” (Goldsmith & Clutterbuck, 1997). This is the approach that New Zealand is implementing on its journey towards more sustainable education solutions. The e-Learning Collaborative Development Fund was an early intervention aimed at building capacity for eLearning through collaboration, and resulted in the unanticipated outcome of significant progress in the adoption of open source software infrastructure technology in the New Zealand tertiary sector. Such projects are examples of evolutionary strategies which established the context and foundations for institutional preparedness to consider the implementation of more revolutionary policy interventions, like NZGOAL. Open education enthusiasts frequently cite the need for substantive policy interventions as a prerequisite to facilitate the mainstream adoption of OER (see, for example, Green, 2011). Notwithstanding the compelling logic for policy reform to enable systemic adoption of open education practices, and New Zealand’s experience with government’s policy for radical open licensing reform of public sector resources, the relationship between policy and implementation is more
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