Explore the vast range of titles available.

Digital transformation is often described as organizational change that is simultaneously triggered and enabled by digital technologies. As with other types of organizational transformation, overcoming organizational inertia lies at the heart of digital transformation. However, our understanding of the specific processes employed by incumbent firms to overcome organizational inertia in digital transformation is currently limited. In this paper, we draw on the case study of AsiaBank, a large traditional bank in Asia, to explore the microfoundations of how incumbent firms tackle different types of inertia as they embark on a digital transformation journey. We identify four key digital transformation processes—i.e., embracing the consumerization of digital technologies, diffusing and appropriating digital business practices, enabling distributed organizing, and revamping IT architecture—that combine to reduce negative psychology, sociocognitive, sociotechnical, political, and economic inertia in digital transformation. Our findings expand the extant view on the role of agency in overcoming organizational inertia and contribute to the literature at the intersection of digital innovation and transformation.

This paper examines the role of technological capability in product innovation. Building on the absorptive capacity perspective and organizational inertia theory, the authors propose that technological capability has curvilinear and differential effects on exploitative and explorative innovations. The findings support the proposition that though technological capability fosters exploitation at an accelerating rate, it has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with exploration. That is, a high level of technological capability impedes explorative innovation. Strategic flexibility strengthens the positive effects of technological capability on exploration, such that when strategic flexibility is high, greater technological capability is associated with more explorative innovation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Traditionally, routines have been perceived as a primary source of inertia, which slows down organizational change and hinders organizational adaptation. Advancing prior research on routine dynamics, this study examines how inertia in routines influences the process of organizational adaptation, both in the absence and presence of endogenous change of routines. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our analysis suggests an overlooked mechanism by which routine-level inertia may help, rather than hinder, organization-level adaptation. We demonstrate this mechanism by using a simple theoretical model in which the organization is characterized as a configuration of interdependent routines and study the process by which this configuration adapts to cope with its task environment. We find that inertia in routines may engender potentially useful variation in the process of organizational adaptation because reduced rates of routine-level changes may lead to temporal reordering when these changes are implemented. In our nuanced perspective, inertia is not only a consequence of adaptation or selection as perceived in prior research, but also a source of variation that turns out to be useful for adaptation. This logic is helpful to better understand why apparently inertial organizations keep surviving and from time to time exhibit outstanding performance. We conclude by discussing how this advanced understanding of the role of routines in organizational adaptation helps elaborate the theory of economic evolution.

This paper proposes a distance-based characterization of age-related structural inertia as an increasing constraint on the speed of change as organizations age. Our framework regards organizations as points in multidimensional metric spaces of architectures. Organizational change means movement in this space. The speed of change is the ratio of the distance between positions in a space and the time it took for the organization to make the move. We illustrate how our distance-based approach can be used to formulate theories of age-related organizational inertia by using this representation to develop a model for a possible mechanism: age-related cultural resistance to change based on the dynamics of exposure of organizational members to architectural features. Our proposed mechanism is distinct from prevailing explanations and leads to new predictions. We also illustrate the value of our distance-based approach in a reanalysis of Sørensen and Stuart’s study of age variations in firms’ patenting behavior [Sørensen JB, Stuart TE (2000) Aging, obsolescence, and organizational innovation. Admin. Sci. Quart. 45(1):81–112]. On the basis of patent citations, we construct a space that allows us to characterize the positions of organizations and the speed at which they change. We find that organizational age has a negative effect on the speed of change.

Purpose Environmental turbulence represents a double-edged sword, simultaneously fueling and hindering a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Drawing on the theories of EO and network relationships, this study aims to develop and test a conceptual model that provides a nuanced account of the relationship between environmental turbulence and firm EO. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected using a survey of high-technology firms in Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) in Taiwan. Questionnaires were mailed to 297 high-technology firms in the semiconductor, photoelectric and communication industries within HSP. Completed questionnaires were received from 94 firms, which included responses from 94 research and development managers and 462 employees. Findings The results reveal that the degree of environmental turbulence exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with a firm’s EO. Moreover, this relationship is positively moderated by network relationships between firms, but negatively moderated by organizational inertia. Originality/value The empirical and conceptual findings have important implications for understanding EO, because the findings explain causal relationships that transform a firm’s interactive and inner control capabilities into firm-level results.

PurposeDrawing upon socio-technical system theory, this study intends to investigate the effects of the congruence and incongruence between artificial intelligence (AI) and explorative learning on supply chain resilience as well as the moderating role of organizational inertia.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey data collected from 170 Chinese manufacturing firms, we performed polynomial regression and response surface analyses to test our hypotheses.FindingsWe find that the congruence between AI and explorative learning enhances firms’ supply chain resilience, while the incongruence between these two factors impairs their supply chain resilience. In addition, compared with low–low congruence, high–high congruence between AI and explorative learning improves supply chain resilience to a greater extent. Moreover, organizational inertia attenuates the positive influence of the congruence between AI and explorative learning on supply chain resilience, while it aggravates the negative influence of the incongruence between these two factors on supply chain resilience.Originality/valueOur study expands the literature on supply chain resilience by demonstrating that the congruence between a firm’s AI (i.e. technical aspect) and explorative learning (i.e. social aspect) boosts its supply chain resilience. More importantly, our study sheds new light on the role of organizational inertia in moderating the congruent effect of AI and explorative learning, thereby extending the boundary condition for socio-technical system theory in the supply chain resilience literature.

Business model design becomes an essential source of firm innovation in the current competitive world. Business model innovation refers to the creation or reinvention of existing business models by designing novel value-creation systems, proposing new value propositions, and building original value-capturing mechanisms. However, to adopt the innovative business model in any organization, the inertia to change is a substantial barrier, and its role has not been examined completely. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of organizational inertia on open innovation, business model innovation, and corporate performance. Using the survey as the research model, data were collected from 160 companies operating in the information technology industry in the city of Tehran. These firms were selected via judgment sampling method. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling technique via SmartPLS2 software. Based on the findings, organizational inertia has a negative relationship with business model innovation and open innovation; though, business model innovation and open innovation have a positive effect on the performance.

This article reviews recent theoretical and empirical research addressing organizations and workplace stratification, with an emphasis on the generic organizational mechanisms responsible for producing both stability and change in workplace inequality. We propose that an organizational approach to the study of stratification should examine status-and class-based inequalities at the intersection of (a) the inertial tendencies of organizational structure, logic, and practice; (b) the relative power of actors within workplaces; and (c) organizations' institutional and competitive environments. The interplay of these generic forces either reproduces static practices and structures or leads to dynamic processes of change. We conclude with theoretical and methodological implications for analyzing social stratification through an organizational lens.

Purpose - This study aims to examine how open innovation can be effective in changing organizational inertia to create business model innovation and improve firm performance. It also seeks to explore whether the existence of open innovation has a mediating effect and influence. Design/methodology/approach - This study constructs a theoretical model to explore the relationship between latent variables and uses a questionnaire to collect research data. In the conceptual framework, organizational inertia is a second-order latent variable and comprises three first-order latent variables: insight inertia, action inertia, and psychological inertia. Open innovation is also a second-order latent variable, and consists of two first-order latent variables: outbound and inbound open innovation. To clarify the relationship between these latent variables, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the goodness of fit of the theoretical model and research hypotheses. This study uses 141 small to medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan as the research subjects. Findings - The SEM analysis revealed that open innovation has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between organizational inertia and business model innovation, and the relationship between organizational inertia and firm performance; business model innovation also has a positive influence on firm performance. Originality/value - This study contributes the empirical analysis of SMEs to illustrate the role of open innovation on business model innovation processes.