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With the growing recognition of the customer's role in service creation and delivery, there is an increased impetus on building customer-centric organizations. Digital technologies play a key role in such organizations. Prior research studying digital business strategies has largely focused on building production-side competencies and there has been little focus on customer-side digital business strategies to leverage these technologies. We propose a theory to understand the effectiveness of a customer-side digital business strategy focused on localized dynamics—here, a firm's customer service units (CSUs). Specifically, we use a capabilities perspective to propose digital design as an antecedent to two customer service capabilities—namely, customer orientation capability and customer response capability—across a firm's CSUs. These two capabilities will help a firm to locally sense and respond to customer needs, respectively. Information quality from the digital design of the CSU is proposed as the antecedent to the two capabilities. Proposed capabilitybuilding dynamics are tested using data collected from multiple respondents across 170 branches of a large bank. Findings suggest that the impacts of information quality in capability-building are contingent on the local process characteristics. We offer implications for a firm's customer-side digital business strategy and present new areas for future examination of such strategies.

Multi-establishment firms (MEFs) rely on digitized processes enabled by advanced IT infrastructure; however, environmental dynamism is a major influence on their operations. Environmental dynamism threatens the efficacy of current operations, requiring firms to evolve their processes. Firms’ IT infrastructure may catalyze or hinder their endeavors and performance as they respond to environmental dynamics. Little previous research has examined which IT infrastructure types are high-performing and whether their effects vary across environments. We investigate the impacts of IT infrastructure, examining microlevel implementation—the constitution of technical and human assets—across the establishments of a multi-establishment firm (MEF). Specifically, we use the notion of a dominant IT infrastructure to unravel the heterogeneity of IT infrastructure across establishments. We explore dominant IT infrastructures—technology, human, or both—and assess their impacts across environmental conditions. To test our hypotheses, we used a panel dataset from 2007 to 2009 comprising 355 unique firms. Our findings reveal that the impact of establishment-level IT infrastructure types on MEF performance is contingent on environmental dynamism. A technology-dominant IT infrastructure leads to greater MEF performance in less dynamic environments, while a human-dominant IT infrastructure leads to greater MEF performance in more dynamic environments. The MEF performance is enhanced through a combination of technology- and human-dominant IT infrastructures in more dynamic environments. We conclude by discussing the theoretical insights and managerial implications of our findings.

With the growing recognition of the customer’s role in service creation and delivery, there is an increased impetus on building customer-centric organizations. Digital technologies play a key role in such organizations. Prior research studying digital business strategies has largely focused on building production-side competencies and there has been little focus on customer-side digital business strategies to leverage these technologies. We propose a theory to understand the effectiveness of a customer-side digital business strategy focused on localized dynamics—here, a firm’s customer service units (CSUs). Specifically, we use a capabilities perspective to propose digital design as an antecedent to two customer service capabilities—namely, customer orientation capability and customer response capability—across a firm’s CSUs. These two capabilities will help a firm to locally sense and respond to customer needs, respectively. Information quality from the digital design of the CSU is proposed as the antecedent to the two capabilities. Proposed capability-building dynamics are tested using data collected from multiple respondents across 170 branches of a large bank. Findings suggest that the impacts of information quality in capability-building are contingent on the local process characteristics. We offer implications for a firm’s customer-side digital business strategy and present new areas for future examination of such strategies.

Retailing is undergoing a remarkable transformation brought by recent advances in technology. In this paper, we provide a deep discussion of and look ahead on how technology is changing retail, starting with a classification of technologies that impact retailing, in particular, in the COVID-19 and beyond world. We discuss different theoretical frameworks or lenses to better understand the role of technology in retailing. We identify and elaborate on the drivers and outcomes of technology adoption by shoppers, retailers, employees, and suppliers. We speculate on future retail scenarios and outline future research avenues on technology and retailing. We close by concluding that technology is not only reshaping retailing, but also allowing retailing to pivot in the face of new and unforeseen circumstances.

The creation and delivery of healthcare services are being transformed through patient-engaging digital services. However, their effects on hospital performance are unclear. We build on the theoretical foundations of resource dependency and environmental munificence to identify two characteristics of the hospital’s regional environment, the population’s access to digital computing resources (computing access) and health insurance coverage (service access), that condition the effects of hospitals’ patient-engaging digital services on patient satisfaction and readmissions. We argue that these omitted environmental contingencies may help explain the inconclusive findings reported in prior empirical studies on digital services. Analysis of data collated from a national sample of 941 hospitals nested within 157 regions shows that computing access in the environment strengthens the effect of a hospital’s digital services on readmissions and patient satisfaction. By contrast, service access dampens the moderated effect of digital services and computing access on readmissions, but the effect is not the same for patient satisfaction. Our study offers theoretical and practical implications underscoring the role of environmental heterogeneity in the value hospitals realize from patient-engaging digital services.

Initiatives to leverage information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) have attracted huge investments, especially in less developed countries. However, the success rate of such initiatives has been low. Prior research on this topic has argued for various individual and network characteristics as predictors of information and communication technology (ICT) use and consequent benefits. We argue that, in order to garner potential benefits of the local information and knowledge resources embedded in citizens’ advice networks, hybrid governance that combines leadership by the local government and the technology sponsor is required. We further theorize that leadership by the local government or the technology sponsor for different stages of the ICT4D initiative affects the salience of the pathways through which benefits of citizens’ advice networks accrue. We found support, in a longitudinal field study in 10 villages in India (2,980 heads of households), for our theory that hybrid governance modes outperform those that are homogeneous. Leadership by the local government for the pre-launch stage and by the technology sponsor for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the behavioral pathway for economic benefits—that is, leveraging advice networks for ICT use and consequently realizing gains in income. In contrast, leadership by the technology sponsor for the pre-launch stage and by the local government for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the informational pathway—that is, leveraging information and knowledge from advice networks to directly generate gains in income. Adjacent villages that did not have a similar ICT4D initiative did not experience a comparable growth in farmer income.

Initiatives to leverage information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) have attracted huge investments, especially in less developed countries. However, the success rate of such initiatives has been low. Prior research on this topic has argued for various individual and network characteristics as predictors of information and communication technology (ICT) use and consequent benefits. We argue that, in order to garner potential benefits of the local information and knowledge resources embedded in citizens’ advice networks, hybrid governance that combines leadership by the local government and the technology sponsor is required. We further theorize that leadership by the local government or the technology sponsor for different stages of the ICT4D initiative affects the salience of the pathways through which benefits of citizens’ advice networks accrue. We found support, in a longitudinal field study in 10 villages in India (2,980 heads of households), for our theory that hybrid governance modes outperform those that are homogeneous. Leadership by the local government for the pre-launch stage and by the technology sponsor for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the behavioral pathway for economic benefits—that is, leveraging advice networks for ICT use and consequently realizing gains in income. In contrast, leadership by the technology sponsor for the pre-launch stage and by the local government for the post-launch stage was the most effective in promoting the informational pathway—that is, leveraging information and knowledge from advice networks to directly generate gains in income. Adjacent villages that did not have a similar ICT4D initiative did not experience a comparable growth in farmer income.

Open-source software development is the next stage in the evolution of product development, particularly software products. Compared with the prevailing proprietary approaches, open-source software products are developed by co-opting external developers and prospective users. Although a core group of developers might still play a key role in the initial design and development, a notable aspect of the open-source software paradigm is the role of peripheral developers in the enhancement and popularization of the product. Peripheral developers are not formal members of the core development team. They voluntarily contribute their time and creative talent in improving the quality of the product or in popularizing the product through word-of-mouth advocacy. As volunteers, they are not subject to the traditional hierarchical controls, nor are they contractually obligated. Peripheral developers represent a novel and unique aspect of open-source software development, and there is a greater interest in tapping their potential. However, there has been limited evidence about how and when their participation has beneficial impacts. We examine how peripheral developers contribute to product quality and diffusion by utilizing longitudinal data on 147 open-source software products. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis indicates that peripheral developers make significant contributions to product quality and diffusion, especially on projects that are in the more mature stages of product development.

This research examines the impacts of the assimilation and use of IT on the financial performance of hospitals. We identify two dimensions of IT assimilation and use. They are the IT applications architecture spread, which is the adoption of a broad array of IT solutions, and IT applications architecture longevity, which is the length of experience with use of specific IT solutions. We examine the extent to which these dimensions of assimilation within the business and clinical work processes impact hospital performance. Compared with the effects of IT applications architecture spread, we find that the IT applications architecture longevity has a more significant effect on financial performance. In addition, the effects of assimilation manifest differently across the business and clinical process domains. Our results enhance understanding about the manner in which the assimilation and use of IT contributes to the financial performance of hospitals.