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Past research provides instructive yet incomplete answers as to how incumbent firms can address competing concerns as they embrace digital innovation. In particular, it offers only partial explanations of why different concerns emerge, how they manifest, and how firms can manage them. In response, we present a longitudinal case study of Volvo Cars’connected car initiative. Combining extant literature with insights from the case, we argue that incumbent firms face four competing concerns—capability (existing versus requisite), focus (product versus process), collaboration (internal versus external), and governance (control versus flexibility)—and that these concerns are systemically interrelated. Firms must therefore manage these concerns cohesively by continuously balancing new opportunities and established practices.

Research Summary Why do incumbent firms frequently reject nonincremental innovations? Beyond technical, structural, or economic factors, we propose an additional factor: the degree of the top management team's (TMT) frame flexibility, i.e., their capability to cognitively expand an innovation's categorical boundaries and to cast the innovation as emotionally resonant with the organization's identity, competencies, and competitive boundaries. We argue that inertial forces generally constrict how TMTs perceive innovations, but that frame flexibility can overcome these constraints, increasing the likelihood of adoption and broadening the organization's innovation practices. We advance a theoretical model that relaxes the assumption that cognitive frames are static, showing how they become flexible via categorical positioning, and introduce a role for emotional frames that appeal to organizational members' sentiments and aspirations in innovation adoption. Managerial Summary Confronting a technological change is one of the most difficult challenges facing any incumbent firm. Technological transitions create pressure for leaders to reframe their mental models while continuing to develop existing capabilities and product category variants. Yet at key junctures in a product class and during technological change, a concrete definition of the firm's innovation boundaries and identity hold a firm hostage to its past. We show how a flexible cognitive frame—coupled with emotional framing—helps leaders and organization members become emotionally engaged in transformation efforts and, in turn, learn about executing nonincremental innovation over time. At technological transitions, perhaps there is no more important role for leaders than to expand their cognitive frames and to infuse these expanded frames with emotion.

The issue of the failure of incumbent firms in the face of radical technical change has been a central question in the technology strategy domain for some time. We add to prior contributions by highlighting the role a firm's existing set of complementary assets have in influencing its investment in alternative technological trajectories. We develop an analytical model that considers firm heterogeneity with respect to both technological trajectories and complementary assets. Complementary assets play a dual role in incumbents' investment behavior toward radical technological change: they are not only resources (pipes) that can buffer firms from technology change, but also prisms through which firms view those changes, influencing both the magnitude of resources that should be invested and the trajectory to which these resources should be directed.

According to the literature on ambidexterity, organizations can use structural or contextual approaches to simultaneously explore novel opportunities and exploit existing ones. So far, however, we know very little about what induces organizations to focus on structural versus contextual ambidexterity, or how they combine the two approaches to maximize organizational learning. To shed more light on these questions, we investigate how the environment shapes a firm’s use of structural and contextual ambidexterity. Drawing on a comparative, longitudinal case study of the four largest electric utility companies in Germany, we show that firms focused on structural ambidexterity whenever they perceived emerging opportunities in the environment as requiring organizational culture and capabilities fundamentally different from their own. Contextual ambidexterity, on the other hand, became particularly important when opportunities in the environment were both numerous and uncertain, requiring the organization to leverage the distributed attention and expertise of its frontline employees. We show that environments characterized by opportunities that are numerous/uncertain and require novel culture and capabilities lead organizations to invest in initiatives that combine elements of both structural and contextual ambidexterity—an approach we label hybrid ambidexterity . Our theory framework synthesizes and complements existing work that has started to investigate the antecedents of structural versus contextual ambidexterity. We challenge the prevailing understanding of contextual and structural ambidexterity as dichotomous categories and reconceptualize them as two ends of a continuum. In addition, we provide initial evidence that firms’ ambidexterity approaches are influenced by managers’ perceptions of capabilities and opportunities.

In this article, we use cross-state panel and cross-U.S. commuting-zone data to look at the relationship between innovation, top income inequality and social mobility. We find positive correlations between measures of innovation and top income inequality. We also show that the correlations between innovation and broad measures of inequality are not significant. Next, using instrumental variable analysis, we argue that these correlations at least partly reflect a causality from innovation to top income shares. Finally, we show that innovation, particularly by new entrants, is positively associated with social mobility, but less so in local areas with more intense lobbying activities.

Succession is one of the most discussed topics in family business research. However, despite the changing professional and family roles of women and the growing number of female CEOs worldwide, published works in the body of literature have relatively little to say on the role of gender in succession. The article reviews the recent development in the literature related to women in intergenerational succession in family businesses with the aim of systematizing gender-related factors affecting intra-family succession, and also proposes directions for future research. Based on a sample of 35 studies published between 2005 and 2017, this paper categorizes the gender-related factors found in the literature into three categories: environment and context, people, and processes. Subsequently, the paper summarizes the current state-of-the-art in light of these three categories. Since the research on the role of gender in succession is fragmented and lacks an overall direction, we present multiple directions for future research. The present review contributes to the body of literature on the development of family business by comprehensively systematizing existing gender-related factors affecting succession.

This paper reviews extant research on technological catch-up of East Asian firms, which has recently emerged as an important issue. We review 76 articles on technological catch-up in the East Asian context published in 17 journals over 23 years (1995–2017), covering the academic disciplines of strategic management, international business, entrepreneurship, technology and innovation management, and economics. Based on a systematic analysis of this literature, we develop an overarching framework to this topic. We then identify the major gaps in the literature and suggest areas for future research on technological catch-up of Asian firms.

The article wanted to find out if elections in the Philippines are economically motivated. Using 2019 gubernatorial election results, a logit model with inflation rate, unemployment rate, provincial revenue, and poverty incidence for the economic variables and party affiliation with the President and membership in a political family as the political variables was tested to explain the probability of an incumbent governor to be re-elected. The marginal effects tell us that a change in the unemployment rate decreases the predicted probability of a governor being reelected but interestingly, a change in the poverty incidence rates has the opposite effect.

Purpose This paper aims to gain insights into the paradoxical tensions emerging from circular business model innovation (CBMI) and how to overcome them by developing a theoretical framework drawing on two theoretical streams: firstly, the paradox theory for shedding light on the often “invisible” contradictions generated by the implementation of circular economy (CE) principles in business model transformation; and secondly, the dynamic capability theory that can contribute to the investigation of how to manage these contradictions. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a longitudinal case study approach to gain an in-depth understanding of the transformation and challenges faced by an incumbent firm in adopting a circular business model. Qualitative research methods are used to explore the paradoxical tensions and dynamic capabilities involved in the process. Findings The study finds that incumbent firms face numerous challenges and paradoxical tensions in the CBMI process. These tensions arise from difficulties in implementing organizational changes, balancing competing priorities and managing conflicting goals. Dynamic capabilities are crucial in managing these tensions and facilitating the transition to a circular business model. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to the theoretical development of paradox theory by applying it to the new field of CBMI which is currently slightly investigated and responds to the call for studies looking at more fine-grained types of sustainable business models. The study adds to previous literature that how the firm handles paradoxes and tensions influences the pace and results of the process. If the firm becomes discouraged during the early stages of identifying new opportunities, the pace slows down, and the firm becomes hesitant to collaborate more with partners. Furthermore, the ability to capitalize on these opportunities is affected by these tensions and contradictions. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by empirically investigating the process of CBMI in incumbent firms. It fills the gap in existing research by examining the existence of paradoxical tensions in a real-life setting and exploring the role of dynamic capabilities in managing these tensions. The findings provide practical insights for firms seeking a transition towards a CE and highlight that the ability to sense the external context should be developed as the new business model entails a central role of external actors.

Despite recent interest in studying information system habits, our understanding of how these habits develop and operate in an organizational context is still limited. Within organizations, IS habits may develop over long periods of time andare typically embedded within larger, frequently practiced, higher-level work routines or task sequences. When new systems are introduced for the purpose of at least partially replacing incumbent systems, existing IS habits embedded in these routines may inhibit adoption and use of the new systems. Therefore, understanding how work-related IS habits form, how they enable and inhibit behavior, and how they can be disrupted or encouraged requires that we examine them within the context of organizational and individual level work routines. The current study integrates psychology and organizational behavior literature on cognitive scripts and work routines to examine IS habits as they occur embedded within larger, more complex task sequences. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the IS habit literature by (1) situating IS habits within the context of their associated work routines and task sequences, and (2) providing a theoretical understanding of how incumbent system habits can be disrupted, and how development of new system habits can be encouraged, within this context. We draw from extant research in psychology, organizational behavior, and consumer behavior to offer propositions about context-focused organizational interventions to break, or otherwise discourage, the continued performance of incumbent system habits and to encourage the development of new system habits. Specifically, our theoretical development includes script disruption techniques, training-in-context, and performance goal suspension as organizational interventions that disrupt incumbent system habits. We further theorize how stabilizing contextual variables associated with modified work routines can facilitate the development of new system habits. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of combining intervention strategies to successfully disrupt incumbent system habits and encourage development of new system habits and thus facilitate adoption of new systems.