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PurposeThis paper aims to empirically explore the evolution of servitization and how platforms affect the transition between the stages of servitization.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an in-depth case study of a Chinese manufacturer (i.e. Haier) using a longitudinal design. Three rounds of data collection were conducted between 2014 and 2020. The authors carried out 50 semi-structured interviews and 11 workshops to collect data from senior and middle managers of Haier and its business partners.FindingsThe authors found that Haier’s servitization journey includes three stages (i.e. product-oriented solution, integrated solution and smart connected solutions) that evolve in the target of the services and the digital components of the solutions. Haier has also developed three types of platforms (i.e. service platform, supply chain platform and platform ecosystem) to support the implementation of servitization. The empirical evidence reveals that platforms can address the complexities that emerged when Haier implements the different stages of servitization as well as enable Haier to transition from one stage of servitization to the next.Originality/valueThis study enhances the current understanding of the evolution of servitization and the roles of digital technologies in the transition between the stages of servitization. It also provides empirical evidence regarding how the platform approach enables the development of servitization. By clarifying the interplay between servitization and platforms, this study provides guidelines for managers on how to develop platforms to both advance and benefit from servitization.

In this longitudinal study, we explore the coevolution of the cognitive complexity of the CEO of Puma, Jochen Zeitz, and his view and initiatives on sustainability. Our purpose was to explore how the changes in a leader's mindset relate to his/her views and actions on sustainability. In contrast to previous studies, we adopt an in-depth longitudinal case study approach to capture the role of leaders' cognitive complexity in the context of corporate sustainability. By understanding the cognitive development of Zeitz as leader of Puma, we provide an important step toward understanding the co-evolution of leaders' cognitive complexity and proactive corporate sustainability initiatives over time. Our findings show that as he developed a more complex mindset that also included non-business lenses, Zeitz developed a more inclusive understanding of sustainability and adopted proactive initiatives that went beyond business-as-usual. Our study also demonstrates that a longitudinal perspective can offer valuable insights for a better understanding of how individuals and their interactions affect and are affected by an organization's strategies and performance, in corporate sustainability and beyond.

ContextResponding to change and continuously improving processes, practices, and products are core to agile software development. It is no different in large-scale agile, where multiple software development teams need to respond both to changes in their external environments and to changes within the organization.ObjectiveWith this study, we aim to advance knowledge on coordination in large-scale agile by developing a model of the types of organizational changes that influence coordination mechanisms.MethodWe conducted a longitudinal case study in a growing large-scale agile organization, focusing on how external and internal changes impact coordination over time. We collected our data through 62 days of fieldwork across one and a half years. We conducted 37 interviews, observed 118 meetings at all organizational levels, collected supplementary material such as chat logs and presentations, and analyzed the data using thematic analysis.ResultsOur findings demonstrate how external events, such as onboarding new clients, and internal events, such as changes in the team organization, influence coordination mechanisms in the large-scale software development program. We find that external and internal change events lead to the introduction of new coordination mechanisms, or the adjustment of existing ones. Further, we find that continuous scaling requires continuous change and adjustment. Finally, we find that having the right mechanisms in place at the right time strengthens resilience and the ability to cope with change in coordination needs in complex large-scale environments.ConclusionsOur findings are summarized in an empirically based model that provides a practical approach to analyzing change, aimed at supporting both researchers and practitioners dealing with change in coordination mechanisms in large-scale agile development contexts.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to provide a theoretical explanation of the strategic and structural changes occurring in US omnichannel retail supply chains. Using longitudinal data, the research documents transitions in retailers' supply chain strategies, specifically related to the order fulfillment process. It further offers explanation for how and why these transitions occurred.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a process theory lens to explain the business model transformation of the omnichannel order fulfillment process. Using a case study approach, a longitudinal multicase study was conducted with six large US retailers over a span of 10 years. Within-case and cross-case analysis identifies the sequence and rationale of different strategic and structural shifts in retailers' omnichannel order fulfillment strategy.FindingsThe within- and cross-case analyses offer insight into how the transitions occur, at what rate they occur across several different retailers, and why the rate can differ across the stages of omnichannel transition among retailers. The research documents that retailers took varied approaches to strategically develop and structurally change their order fulfillment processes in their transition to omnichannel retail. The findings reveal that these approaches are dependent on retailers' store-based logistics capabilities and specific supply chain arrangements within their retail segment.Research limitations/implicationsThe longitudinal and theoretically driven approach provides researchers a better understanding of the business model transformation in US retail omnichannel operations. This approach builds theoretical context around why and how strategic and structural changes in omnichannel fulfillment occurred over time. It also explains the underlying omnichannel phenomenon more accurately than research focused on discrete changes at a single point in time.Practical implicationsThe findings and managerial insights can assist practitioners in understanding how environmental changes have led to strategic and structural shifts across different stages of omnichannel fulfillment evolution. These insights also provide guidance to retailers that are currently in early stages of developing their omnichannel fulfillment strategy.Originality/valueLogistics and fulfillment operations of retailers have changed dramatically over the last 10–15 years. The authors apply a process theory lens to explain how and why retailers have integrated their channels to achieve omnichannel success at the store level.

Organizational spaces project claims of organizational legitimacy while also constituting physical environments where work happens. This research questions how organizational space and legitimacy are mutually constituted over time as organizations experience shifts in work and institutional demands. Building on a qualitative case study of Paris Dauphine University, a French university founded in the late 1960s that has, since its inception, occupied the former North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters, we theorize the dynamic intersection of organizational space and legitimacy over time. The case study demonstrates how spatial practices of appropriation, reappropriation, and disappropriation intersect with and inform what we call “spatial legacies” that function to establish or repair an alignment between organizational space and legitimacy. Spatial practices of appropriation and reappropriation build and manipulate spatial legacies, whereas spatial practices of disappropriation attempt to break away from such legacies. Appropriation and reappropriation involve managing spatial legacies to maintain the alignment between organizational space and legitimacy claims. Disappropriation involves trying to erase or alter these legacies to realign the space to changing legitimacy claims. This research adds to the literature on sociomateriality by adopting a longitudinal perspective that highlights legacies as nondeterministic outcomes of past imbrications of the social and the material, to research on legitimacy by conceptualizing it as a sociomaterial construction, and to research on organizational spaces by revealing the institutional underpinnings of spatial transformations. This research also holds practical implications by highlighting the relationships between space as it is designed and used and an organization’s legitimacy claims and by showing how claiming the immutability or flexibility of a space can be legitimizing for an organization.

While much is known about selecting different types of control that can be exercised in information systems development projects, the control dynamics associated with ISD offshoring projects represent an important gap in our understanding. In this paper, we develop a substantive grounded theory of control balancing that addresses this theoretical gap. Based on a longitudinal case study of an ISD offshoring project in the financial services industry, we introduce a three-dimensional control configuration category that emerged from our data, suggesting that control type is only one dimension on which control configuration decisions need to be made. The other two dimensions that we identified are control degree (tight versus relaxed) and control style (unilateral versus bilateral). Furthermore, we illustrate that control execution during the life cycle of an ISD offshoring project is highly intertwined with the development of client-vendor shared understanding and that each influences the other. Based on these findings, we develop an integrative process model that explains how offshoring project managers make adjustments to the control configuration periodically to allow the ISD offshoring project and relationship to progress, yielding the iterative use of different three-dimensional control configurations that we conceptualize in the paper. Our process model of control balancing may trigger new ways of looking at control phenomena in temporary interfirm organizations such as client-vendor ISD offshoring projects. Implications for research on organizational control and ISD offshoring are discussed. In addition, guidelines for ISD offshoring practitioners are presented.

PurposeManufacturers face various challenges and risks during their digital servitization (DS), due to the complexity caused by introducing breakthrough technologies, increasingly complex product-service solutions and new stakeholders in the business network. The process necessitates the implementation of various changes that usually happen over a long period of time. Using complexity management as a theoretical lens, this paper delves into manufacturers’ DS journeys and explores how manufacturers manage the associated complexities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper investigates the DS journey of two manufacturers in a longitudinal case study from 2014 to 2021.FindingsThree main complexity management actions during the DS journey were identified: shaping the digital service system, shaping the organization and shaping the network. Tied to different types of complexities, these actions demonstrate how manufacturers navigate their journey. The findings also reveal different complexity management approaches used at the different stages of this journey.Originality/valueThis paper offers a comprehensive framework for understanding complexity management in the DS journey, including the types of complexities, complexity management actions and complexity management approaches and their rationale. This paper shows that different requirements are created during emerge, consolidate and evolve stages of the DS journey. Manufacturers need a dynamic approach that considers changes in complexities and actions over time.

Purpose – While previous studies explored the argument that allies the notion of complexity to the complex product-service offerings being procured, this paper aims to explore whether there is a corollary with exchange governance complexity. More specifically, the paper analyzes the relationship between systemic complexity and complexity of contractual and relational exchange governance in procuring complex performance (PCP) arrangements. Design/methodology/approach – A multiple, longitudinal case study method is used to examine the relationship between systemic complexity and exchange governance complexity. The study deploys rich data sets by combining government and company reports with 43 semi-structured interviews. Findings – Preliminary conclusions suggest that as a response to increasing systemic complexity, organizations respond with increasing contractual governance complexity. However, better performing PCP arrangements illustrate that the use of simplified contractual governance in form of working agreements in combination with relational governance such as inter-personal relationships may be more effective to counteract complexity. Practical implications – The paper questions whether organizations should respond with increasing exchange governance complexity to counteract systemic complexity. Managers must consider the manageability and enforceability of complex contracts in combination with the formation of inter-personal relationships and simplified working agreements. Originality/value – This study adds to the limited empirical understanding on the nature of long-term public-private interactions in PCP. It also contributes through a rare focus on the relationship between systemic complexity and exchange governance complexity in PCP arrangements.

PurposeThis paper investigates the link between Intellectual Capital (IC) and Open Innovation (OI). Scholars worldwide consider the topics as standing alone and so they give scarce attention to the possible link between them. Managerial experiences (and few theoretical contributions), instead, hypothesize a significant role that IC can play over OI processes in order make them successful.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology of a single case study is used to investigate the link between IC and OI. In particular, an OI process managed by a global company, LEGO, and named Mindstorms is rebuilt and analysed herein.FindingsIntermediate results achieved by LEGO through its OI process were unsuccessful since the company had not developed its own IC (made up of relational, human and structural capital). The subsequent development of IC, instead, has driven to successful results. This suggests that if companies do not develop their IC before launching OI processes, then these processes might be not successful.Research limitations/implicationsOne limitation is the use of a single case study. Despite this, the present article is a warning for all the companies: before launching OI processes they need to develop their IC.Originality/valueTo the best knowledge of the authors, this is one of the first works that deepens the investigation of the link between IC and OI. Very often, scholars investigating IC shyly refer to OI, without mentioning it, while the scholars investigating OI allude to IC, without citing it. In this study, IC and OI are investigated together.

The information systems literature has paid a great deal of attention to how macro-level structures shape local technology enactments. Less research has focused on the mutual shaping of situated technology enactments and such extra-organizational structures. This study explores how technology-afforded human action at the micro-level may transform field-level social structures and thus generate institutional change. We use a critical realist approach and institutional logics lens and draw on empirical data about the development and implementation of an e-health service in Swedish rheumatology between 2000 and 2014. We identify a recursive mechanism consisting of three recursive practices—material reconstruction, discursive reconstruction, and emergent use—that fostered a shift in the field’s constellation of institutional logics, moving from a competitive to an additive relationship between logics.