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1 – 10 of 22Sambit Lenka, Vinit Parida, David Rönnberg Sjödin and Joakim Wincent
The dominant-view within servitization literature presupposes a progressive transition from product to service orientation. In reality, however, many manufacturing firms maintain…
Abstract
Purpose
The dominant-view within servitization literature presupposes a progressive transition from product to service orientation. In reality, however, many manufacturing firms maintain both product and service orientations throughout their servitization journey. Using the theoretical lens of organizational ambivalence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the triggers, manifestation and consequences of these conflicting orientations.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study method was used to analyze five large manufacturing firms that were engaged in servitization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 respondents across different functions within these firms.
Findings
Servitizing firms experience organizational ambivalence during servitization because of co-existing product and service orientations. This paper provides a framework that identifies the triggers of this ambivalence, its multi-level manifestation and its consequences. These provide implications for explaining why firms struggle to implement servitization strategies due to co-existing product and services orientations. Understanding organizational ambivalence, provides opportunity to manage related challenges and can be vital to successful servitization.
Originality/value
Considering the theoretical concept of ambivalence could advance the understanding of the effects and implications of conflicting orientations during servitization in manufacturing firms.
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Jukka Partanen, Marko Kohtamäki, Vinit Parida and Joakim Wincent
The purpose of this paper is to develop a new scale for measuring the scope (i.e. breadth and depth) of industrial service offering.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a new scale for measuring the scope (i.e. breadth and depth) of industrial service offering.
Design/methodology/approach
The scale and its constructs are developed by combining the key insights from prior literature and practitioners gained through expert interviews; validating the constructs by 3 item-construct validation rounds with 9 academic experts; and by testing and further revising the scale, with a sample of 91 manufacturing firms.
Findings
The distinct contribution of the study is the construction and validation of a new multi-dimensional scale for operationalizing the scope of industrial service offering. In addition, the identified service categories (i.e. pre-sales services, product support services, product life-cycle services, R&D services and operational services) extend the current literature on service typologies.
Research limitations/implications
The data are somewhat biased toward small- and medium-sized industrial firms. Hence, the development of the measurement in the context of large industrial firms provides one fruitful avenue for further research.
Practical implications
For managers of industrial firms, the identified service categories provide novel insight on how to develop, bundle and commercialize industrial services to their varying customer segments.
Originality/value
This study develops a multi-dimensional, fine-grained, statistical and relationship-level scale for measuring the scope of industrial service business. Moreover, this study tests and further develops the scale with quantitative empirical data.
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Raghu Nandan Chawla and Praveen Goyal
Ubiquitous digital technologies are driving organisations to embrace non-traditional digitally transformed business models incessantly. Heterogeneous literature contributions have…
Abstract
Purpose
Ubiquitous digital technologies are driving organisations to embrace non-traditional digitally transformed business models incessantly. Heterogeneous literature contributions have resulted in a spur in the research related to business transformation driven by digital technologies in recent years; consequently, the research under the digital transformation (DT), even though becoming a hotspot, remains very fragmented. The authors endeavour to holistically present the literature's intellectual structure under DT as a concept, its evolving journey and the emerging research streams in the business and management domains using the techniques of bibliometric analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
By performing bibliometric analysis on 234 research articles published over the last 20 years in the DT domain, retrieved from Thompson Reuters Web of Science TM, this study culls out thorough insights from the citation, co-citation and keyword analysis. Further emerging research streams were evaluated using VOSviewer software.
Findings
The study depicts an overall incremental trend of year-on-year publications, authors' performance, publication journals, associated institutions and research driving countries, along with key insights from co-citation network analysis. Furthermore, the study evaluates four research areas – organisational impacts, applied applications and insights, operational processes and social aspects, comprising eighteen research streams that comprehensively cover-up research under the DT domain.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the literature of DT by amalgamating the status of the present research, but more importantly, by deriving the research areas and research streams, which can be further expanded by researchers as future research streams.
Practical implications
For the practitioners, the study aims to act as a ready reckoner repository with practice-oriented literature references to facilitate them building knowledge and taking effective strategic decisions to harness the benefits of DT more proficiently.
Originality/value
This study illustrates the bibliometric structure of the DT literature and presents insights from the growth of the literature year-on-year.
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Todd Morgan, Sergey Anokhin and Joakim Wincent
This study aims to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation, firm market power and their interaction on opportunism in horizontal exchange networks. The aim is to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation, firm market power and their interaction on opportunism in horizontal exchange networks. The aim is to investigate how entrepreneurial orientation and market power individually can lead to opportunism, but possessing both characteristics will mitigate such behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an analysis of 108 firms in 25 networks using a panel-corrected standard errors approach, the study tests hypotheses regarding how entrepreneurial orientation, firm market power and their interaction impact opportunism within a focal horizontal network.
Findings
The results of the analysis show that entrepreneurial orientation and firm market power are both positively related to network opportunism, but when firms possess both characteristics, opportunism toward fellow network actors is mitigated.
Research limitations/implications
Research on entrepreneurial orientation has primarily examined the positive outcomes of the strategic orientation. Firm power has been studied as an antecedent of opportunism and governance mechanisms. This study examines the joint impact of the two and brings new insight to the research streams.
Practical implications
Horizontal networks are conduits for resource and knowledge exchange, yet managers need to be concerned about how firms seek competitive advantage. Our framework suggests that managers should be concerned about dealing with network actors with an entrepreneurial orientation philosophy or high market power, but when firms possess both, they are deemed safer partners.
Originality/value
The manuscript extends research on entrepreneurial orientation, firm power and horizontal networks. While both entrepreneurial orientation and power may impede networking relationships, this paper shows that firms that possess both may be the best relational partners.
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Sara Thorgren, Carin Nordström and Joakim Wincent
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motives behind individuals’ choice to have parallel business-employment careers (hybrid entrepreneurship) with a particular focus…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motives behind individuals’ choice to have parallel business-employment careers (hybrid entrepreneurship) with a particular focus on passion (i.e. to work with something one is passionate about) as the main motive.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was administered to 262 Swedish hybrid entrepreneurs. Hypotheses proposed associations of the individual's age at business start-up and weekly hours spent on the business with passion as the main motive for the hybrid form. Logistic regression was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicated that first, the ability to work with something one is passionate about is the top motive for combining employment with a side business; second, passion is more likely to be the main motive behind the hybrid form among individuals who are older at business start-up; third, passion is less likely to be the main motive behind the hybrid form among individuals who spend more time on the business.
Research limitations/implications
The study focusses on passion as motive for hybrid entrepreneurship, and in doing so, it does not test the extent to which hybrid entrepreneurs experience passion.
Practical implications
The results support the popular notion that passion drives people to have parallel business-employment careers. Findings indicating that passion as a motive is more common among those who are older at start-up and less common among those who spend more time on the business suggest the importance of acknowledging hybrid entrepreneurs’ various profiles when approaching them in research and practice.
Originality/value
This is the first study on motives behind hybrid entrepreneurship.
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Daniel Örtqvist, Mateja Drnovsek and Joakim Wincent
The purpose of this study is to analyze entrepreneurs' coping strategies used to face stakeholders' expectations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze entrepreneurs' coping strategies used to face stakeholders' expectations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws from the general management, role theory, and entrepreneurship literature to develop hypotheses that are tested by using hierarchical regression techniques on a sample of 183 Slovenian entrepreneurs. The paper develops and tests four coping strategies (structural role redefinition, personal role redefinition, reactive role behavior, and passive role behavior) to assess influence on new venture performance. The analysis examines moderating effects of entrepreneurs' perceived role‐related stress.
Findings
Results reveal that coping strategies focused on reducing expectations and/or working harder to meet expectations positively affect new venture performance. However, entrepreneurs' focus on suppressing perceived expectations negatively influences new venture performance. Furthermore, entrepreneurs' role‐related stress moderates the relationship between reactive role behavior and new venture performance.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a better understanding of types of coping strategies available to entrepreneurs and practical consequences for new venture performance. It also explores why some entrepreneurs perform well and why some may quit early being an entrepreneur while others remain and prosper in their role. Possible study limitations are discussed due to sample characteristics and measurement.
Practical implications
The study results are relevant for practising and nascent entrepreneurs, support organizations, and policy makers since empirical evidence can be used in designing entrepreneurs' training and competency‐building programs.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to illustrate effects on early entrepreneurial performance of coping strategies to meet stakeholders' expectations and, indirectly, entrepreneurs' ability to endure establishing a new venture.
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Carin Nordström, Charlotta Agneta Sirén, Sara Thorgren and Joakim Wincent
The purpose of this paper is to draw on the theory of choice overload to examine how entrepreneurial tenure and involvement in entrepreneurial teams influence passion for engaging…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw on the theory of choice overload to examine how entrepreneurial tenure and involvement in entrepreneurial teams influence passion for engaging in entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was administered to 262 Swedish hybrid entrepreneurs, which refers to individuals who engage in entrepreneurship while also maintaining wage work; this arrangement is becoming more and more common in the Nordic economies. Hypotheses proposed associations between the entrepreneurial tenure (the length of engagement in the side business) and entrepreneurial teams (leading the business with one or more team members) with passion for entrepreneurship. Logistic regression was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Results from logistic regression support the hypotheses with three findings: the longer the individual has had the side business, the less likely passion to be the main motive behind entrepreneurship; passion is less likely to be the main motive behind entrepreneurship among those who are part of an entrepreneurial team; and, involvement in an entrepreneurial team strengthens the negative association between entrepreneurial tenure and passion for entrepreneurship.
Research limitations/implications
The data are limited to the creative sector in Sweden and to the hybrid entrepreneurship context.
Practical implications
The results support the impact of choice overload and the notions that entrepreneurship passion will decrease the longer the business is up running and if the venturing occurs with another team member. In practice, this means that interventions for re-kindling passion in entrepreneurship should focus on dealing with choice overload under conditions of long-term tenure and team-funded ventures. If entrepreneurs want to maintain high levels of passion, quick and isolated entrepreneurial processes reduce the choice overload that may threaten maintaining a high passion for entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
This study is the first to apply choice theory to an entrepreneurship context and to find support for possible negative effects of choice overload on passion for entrepreneurship.
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Marko Kohtamäki, Sara Thorgren and Joakim Wincent
The purpose of this study is to develop and test a framework describing the interplay between collective organizational identity, network behaviors and performance in strategic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop and test a framework describing the interplay between collective organizational identity, network behaviors and performance in strategic networks.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses data from 141 firms that participated in strategic networks. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study demonstrates how a firm’s collective organizational identity directs managerial perceptions toward partner’s opportunism in strategic networks; how these views shape interactions with network partners; and how these interactions facilitate firm adaptations within strategic networks. Moreover, it demonstrates how network adaptations affect the satisfaction with strategic network performance and how this ultimately loops back to influence organizational identity.
Research limitations/implications
Given the limits of quantitative research to capture the mechanisms driving network collaborations, further case-based research on the role of organizational identity for network behaviors is needed.
Practical implications
The results highlight the importance of collective organizational identity for network behaviors and positive performance outcomes. Firms that intend to engage in strategic networks should develop a collective organizational identity that supports implementing the network strategy. The results emphasize the importance of developing a collective organizational identity.
Originality/value
Organizational identity in facilitating network behaviors.
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Dean A. Shepherd, Paula O’Kane and Sotirios Paroutis
In this chapter, Professor Dean Shepherd shares his experiences of becoming a qualitative researcher, bringing us on a [often personal] journey through his research beginnings…
Abstract
In this chapter, Professor Dean Shepherd shares his experiences of becoming a qualitative researcher, bringing us on a [often personal] journey through his research beginnings, how his career developed and how he gravitated towards qualitative research. There are many lessons for Ph.D. students and early career academics and interesting takes on thinking about your research approach and impact.
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To develop and empirically test a framework on how firm size can matter for firm behavior and performance in strategic networks of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop and empirically test a framework on how firm size can matter for firm behavior and performance in strategic networks of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME networks).
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical study based on statistical analysis of standardized questionnaires and analysis of interview material from face‐to‐face interviews with managers in a population of 54 firms that operates in SME networks.
Findings
Firm size can be an important determinant for firm performance, and for networking inside and outside the SME network. Different networking behaviors are found to have different roles for pursuing corporate entrepreneurship and for gaining performance effects in interaction with corporate entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
Prior research has suggested larger firms as valuable for holding firms in SME networks together, but has not put much effort in explaining why and how, and what they gain from doing this. This study advances these suggestions by showing how larger firms can prosper simultaneously as they bind firms together in these networks. Since firm size may determine networking behavior and outcomes in SME networks, the suitability of a larger vs a smaller firm size for SME network participation is discussed.
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