Abstract Extant strategy practice and process studies highlight the duality of change and stability, regarding strategic change as an accomplishment of both movement and recursiveness, which are also displayed by the observed difference in strategy-making between the organizational centre and its periphery. In this study, we examine the emergence of new strategic themes and related organizing in two research universities’ organizational peripheries. By adopting a systems-theoretical view and drawing on Luhmannian organizational analysis, we are able to examine the co-existence of stability and change in each communication event, aiming to reduce complexity but also giving rise to novel complexities, providing ‘spielraum’ for peripheral development activities. The study contributes to the SAPP-oriented stream of studies on strategic change in general and emergent strategy studies in particular by providing an alternative theoretical viewpoint on the centre-periphery dynamics in strategic change and showing how organizations un/decide on new strategic themes, and through what dynamics they might become introduced and organized in established organizations.