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Recent dirty work research has begun to explore intersectionality, attending to how meaning is made at the intersection of multiple sources of taint. This research has shown that individuals often construct both positive and negative meanings, which can be challenging to manage because the meanings people construct require a certain coherence to provide a foundation for action. This challenge is intensified when dirty work is intractable—when it is difficult, if not impossible, for a person to avoid doing this work. Our study of meaning making in the face of intractable dirty work examines ragpickers in Mumbai, India, who handle and dispose of garbage, and are further tainted by belonging to the lowest caste in Indian society, and living in slums. These ragpickers constructed both an overarching sense of helplessness rooted in the intractability of their situation, and a set of positive meanings—survival, destiny, and hope—rooted in specific facets of their lives and enacted through distinct temporal frames. By holding and combining these disparate meanings, they achieved “functional ambivalence”—the simultaneous experience of opposing orientations toward their work and lives that facilitated both acceptance and a sense of agency, and enabled them to carry on in their lives.

Manufacturing firms struggle to break away from their pre-existing business models, offerings, routines, and capabilities. The present study used path dependency as a theoretical lens to investigate a single longitudinal case study of a leading manufacturing company based on in-depth interviews with senior executives and managers. The analysis contributes to extending the digital servitization and path-dependence literature by proposing four path-breaking mechanisms: (1) organizational reconfiguration, (2) reconfiguration of value offerings, (3) opportunity exploration, and (4) knowledge reconfiguration. The framework developed based on these mechanisms generated valuable insights for manufacturing firms seaking to to break away from their dominant paths. Funder: Research Council of Norway (Grant number 326087, 296351); Finnish AcademyLicens fulltext: CC BY License MIDAS (Mastering the Next Industrial Revolution: From product-service solutions to Autonomous Systems)

Manufacturing firms are increasingly seeking to capture the potential of digitalization by transforming towards digital servitization. Yet, most manufacturers struggle to realize the value through digital servitization because it requires a sustained focus on forming ecosystem partnerships. Digital servitization research has long recognized the importance of ecosystem tranformation but much of the existing discussion on this interlink is fragmented and understudied. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to investigate how manufacturing firms engaged in digital servitization transform their ecosystems. To this end, we have examined the triggers, firm-level enablers, ecosystem phases and activities, and effects of ecosystem transformation in digital servitization. We provide a comprehensive review of the phases of ecosystem transformation including ecosystem formation, orchestration, and expansion as well as their associated activities. These findings have been consolidated into an integrative framework for ecosystem transformation and, based on this analysis, suggestions for future research are provided for digital servitization scholars.

The rise of AI technologies is generating novel opportunities for companies to create additional value for their customers by applying a proactive approach, managing uncertainty, and thus improving cost efficiency and increasing revenue. However, AI technology capabilities are not enough—companies need to understand how the technology can be commercialized through appropriate AI business model innovation. When emerging technologies are introduced, business-model concepts often need to be significantly altered. This is necessary to fully capitalize on disruptive technologies because it is just as important to innovate the business model as it is to build advanced technology solutions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explain how AI providers align value-creation and value-capture dimensions in order to develop commercially viable AI business models. To fulfill our stated purpose, this study has adopted an inductive and exploratory single case-study approach centered on a market-leading provider of AI-related services. The findings are consolidated into a process framework that explicitly illustrates the key activities that companies need to perform concerning value creation and value capture for AI business model innovation and commercialization. The framework explains that AI providers need to follow three phases—namely, identifying prerequisites for AI value creation, matching value capture mechanisms, and developing AI business model offer. We also find that AI providers need to test and develop multiple AI business models and operate them simultaneously to ensure commercial success.

While digital servitization provides manufacturing companies with the potential to earn additional revenues in the transition process from physical to digital offerings, the implementation of adequate value-capturing mechanisms is a major hurdle. The literature discerns little on the factors that influence the choice of revenue models for digital services. To address this knowledge gap, we build on a case study approach involving two global manufacturing companies in the railway industry that have experience in offering diverse digital services. The analysis reveals specific features and characteristics of three major revenue models for digital services – namely, subscription, usage-based, and performance-based revenue models. In addition, we identify overarching factors influencing the choice of revenue models for digital services. They are related to a) customer digital readiness, b) digital service sophistication, and c) digital ecosystem partnerships. Building on these influencing factors, we propose a framework that recommends that companies evaluate revenue models in relation to specific digital services. We furnish several theoretical contributions to the digital servitization literature and provide managerial implications for practitioners to assist in the choice of revenue models for digital services. Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-06-07 (hanlid);Funder: Vinnova; Swedish Energy Agency; The Research Council of Norway MCIN/AEI and ERDF (PID2021-129026NB-I00); MCIN/AEI and European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR (TED2021-130230B-I00)

As incumbents strive to collaborate with start-ups in the pursuit of cutting-edge digital solutions, the complexities posed by disparate partners and their innovative endeavours often lead to intricate tensions. Our research underscores the critical role of innovation intermediaries in enabling a successful digital co-creation, yet a deeper understanding of this novel and evolving context is required. Through a comprehensive study of two innovation intermediaries, five incumbent companies, and eleven start-ups, we shed light on how intermediaries can effectively mitigate the hard-to-manage tensions that emerge. Our analysis uncovers three primary tensions: incompatible digital co-creation cultures, divergent digital innovation operations, and misaligned technical capabilities. We further propose a four-phase process for innovation intermediation, including the establishment of digital co-creation foundations, catalysing digital innovation projects, orchestrating the co-creation process, and scaling the resulting outcomes.

Manufacturing firms are increasingly transforming toward digital servitization, characterized by convergence and simultaneous gains from digitalization and servitization. Due to the marked academic and practical relevance of digital servitization, we are witnessing a significant upsurge in studies published on this emerging topic. Thus, the present study undertakes a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to synthesize the prior knowledge on digital servitization and, more importantly, to highlight areas for future research. The findings from the analysis are organized so that important authors and organizations are highlighted through analyses of citation chains and co-authorship networks. The bibliographic coupling analysis of HistCite and VOSviewer reveals the emergence of four dominant thematic areas in the digital servitization literature. These four thematic areas are aligning digitalization and servitization transformations, value co-creation perspectives on digital servitization, conceptualizing the platform strategy for digital servitization, and business model innovation in digital servitization. Finally, based on the analysis of how the literature on digital servitization has evolved over the last two decades and the deeper analysis of thematic analysis, we raise important research questions and provide numerous areas for future research. Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-05-09 (joosat);Funder: Chinese Academy of Engineering (Grant No. 2016-XZ-17); Shanghai Social Science Fund (Grant No. 2019BJB024)Licens fulltext: CC BY License

Scaling has recently found its way into the academic discourse. However, the term has been used inconsistently and mixed up with other terms such as growth. To overcome these impediments to knowledge accumulation, we review the literature, identifying four broad applications of the scaling concept: market scaling, volume scaling, financial scaling, and organizational scaling. Building on their commonalities and setting scaling apart from growth, we develop an inclusive definition of scaling: Scaling describes an increase in the size of a focal subject that is accompanied by a larger-than-proportional increase in the performance resulting from the said subject. We further propose a set of measures that makes it possible to compare the scaling performance of organizations and track their scaling performance over time. Based on our insights as well as a list of “hot topics” in the management literature, we conclude by identifying promising areas for further research. Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-02-10 (hanlid);Funder: The Research Council of Norway

The deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been accelerating in several fields over the past few years, with much focus placed on its potential in Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing. Early reports highlight promising benefits of AI in B2B marketing such as offering important insights into customer behaviors, identifying critical market insight, and streamlining operational inefficiencies. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding concerning how organizations should structure their AI competencies for B2B marketing, and how these ultimately influence organizational performance. Drawing on AI competencies and B2B marketing literature, this study develops a conceptual research model that explores the effect that AI competencies have on B2B marketing capabilities, and in turn on organizational performance. The proposed research model is tested using 155 survey responses from European companies and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results highlight the mechanisms through which AI competencies influence B2B marketing capabilities, as well as how the later impact organizational performance. Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-05-23 (hanlid);Funder: King Saud University; Slovenian Research Agency (P5–0441)

Focusing on the organizing practices by which vulnerable individuals are exploited for their labor, we build a model that depicts how human traffickers systematically target impoverished girls and women and transform their autonomous objection into unquestioned compliance. Drawing from qualitative interviews with women forced into labor in the sex industry, human traffickers, brothel managers, and other sources (e.g., doctors, nongovernment organizations, and police officers fighting human trafficking), we inductively theorize that organizing of vulnerable individuals for human exploitation involves four interrelated practices—(1) deceptive recruiting of the vulnerable, (2) entrapping through isolation, (3) extinguishing alternatives by building barriers, and (4) converting the exploited into exploiters—that together erode and eventually eliminate workers’ autonomy. We conclude by discussing implications of our research for theory—specifically, the literature on human exploitation and loss of worker agency.

Manufacturers are increasingly struggling with the transition from products to product-service-software systems. Our study takes stock of the current research on servitization and digital servitization to investigate the challenging transition process from product to more complex product-service-software systems. We examine how does the digital servitization journey unfold as sayings and doings, and how do intentional narratives guide digital servitization. The present in-depth single case study spanning 8 years reveals the emergent process during the transition of a leading solution provider from servitization to digital servitization. The study uses social practices, such as managers' sayings and doings, to map the change process that unfolds first as servitization and, in a second stage, as digital servitization. Even more importantly, this study unpacks the role of intentional narratives in shaping digital servitization as a lengthy change process. For managers, this study provides a detailed depiction of the servitization and digital servitization processes, and some intentional narratives for guiding the process. Thus, the process may be challenging but perhaps manageable by using intentional narratives as a strategic practice.

For manufacturers, remaining competitive depends on their ability to digitalize their business models (i.e., offer digital and digitally enhanced products and services). To achieve this, they must engage with new digital partners and help their existing suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders to digitalize. Orchestrating this growing ecosystem is challenging. Manufacturers struggle with this endeavor because of specific barriers associated with their existing legacy business model and related to their lack of digital vision, product-centric value chains, and a bias toward firm-centered profit formulas. To overcome these barriers, leading manufacturers have developed new approaches to ecosystem orchestration.

Transforming a traditional industry by adopting autonomous solutions is complex, generating paradoxical tensions on multiple aggregate levels. We undertake an in-depth case study of a leading maritime autonomous solutions provider and its ecosystem partners. We apply the paradox lens using thematic analysis. Our research contributes to the digital servitization literature by identifying six paradoxes inherent in the shift to autonomous solutions, nested in the micro, meso, and macro levels. We develop a multilevel framework of organizational paradoxes, delineating cascading effects of paradoxes across levels. We offer valuable insights for providers to integrate multilevel perspectives into the shift to autonomous solutions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to radically transform the ways manufacturing firms create, deliver, and capture value. However, many manufacturers struggle to successfully assimilate AI capabilities into their business models and operations at scale. In this paper, we explore how manufacturing firms can develop AI capabilities and innovate their business models to scale AI in digital servitization. We present empirical insights from a case study of six leading manufacturers engaged in AI. The findings reveal three sets of critical AI capabilities: data pipeline, algorithm development, and AI democratization. To scale these capabilities, firms need to innovate their business models by focusing on agile customer co-creation, data-driven delivery operations, and scalable ecosystem integration. We combine these insights into a co-evolutionary framework for scaling AI through business model innovation underscoring the mechanisms and feedback loops. We offer insights into how manufacturers can scale AI, with important implications for management.

Circular business models (CBMs) have huge potential to deliver economic, social, and environmental benefits, but CBMs have yet to be implemented widely in industrial settings. One reason is that they are often presented as one-size-fits-all solutions, but this is misplaced because product-specific criteria and company capabilities determine the correct choice and implementation of CBMs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how CBM selection and capability development facilitates the implementation of CBMs. For this purpose, we have adopted a qualitative research approach and undertaken 25 explorative interviews in three large Swedish manufacturing companies. In this paper, a CBM implementation framework consisting of two parts has been developed. The first part addresses the choice of the appropriate CBM based on tactical configurations. The second part provides a capability development path by explicating underlying routines that need to be progressively developed in order to move smoothly to more advanced CBMs. Validerad;2021;Nivå 2;2021-11-01 (beamah)

PurposeThe present study sets out to understand how a manufacturing company in the maritime industry utilized creative design principles and developed service design routines to advance digital servitization (i.e. the transition to offering smart product-service-software systems–PSS) and realize subsequent positive growth outcomes.Design/methodology/approachWe build upon a longitudinal single case of a marine solution provider. Using an action research approach, we collected data through in-depth interviews and informal conversations involving senior managers, project members and customer representatives over a three and a half-year period. In addition, secondary data such as documentary data, service design tools and visualization were utilized.FindingsThe inductive analysis highlights the underlining role of four service-design routines that drive creativity and an innovative approach to digital servitization transformation. More specifically, we identify (a) user insights through creative customer data acquisition, (b) smart PSS collaboration through co-creation across departments, (c) smart PSS ideation through creative forms of collaboration and (d) effective smart PSS delivery and commercialization through creative concept design as the drivers of the case company digital servitization transformation.Practical implicationsWe encourage senior managers within large manufacturing companies to promote the development of service design routines as these promote the transformation process from being a product-centric to service-centric firm. The four service design routines are built on a set of service design sub-activities providing concrete actions that can be applied by senior managers to successfully develop and deliver smart PSS offerings and achieve growth outcomes.Originality/valueThis study contributes by integrating digital servitization and service design literatures. We illustrate how manufacturing firms can drive a transition to digital servitization through service design activities and routines development for smart PSS strategy implementation.

The emerging research stream on digital sustainability examines how digital technologies enable the creation of environmental and social value. The need to finance the creation of such value calls for a business model perspective that combines value creation and value capture. To extend the digital sustainability literature in this regard, we adopt a microfoundations perspective and argue that the configuration of value creation influences the decision of users to pay for a value proposition or not, which in turn affects organizational value capture. Applying a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis to 130 smart city initiatives in Switzerland, we develop a three-dimensional framework of business models for digital sustainability. The framework comprises 12 theoretically possible business model types, representing distinct business model configurations. We contribute to the digital sustainability and the microfoundations literatures by analyzing, explaining, and classifying the diversity of digitally enabled business models in the context of smart cities. Validerad;2023;Nivå 2;2023-04-14 (joosat);Funder: Swiss National Science Foundation (project number 407740_187381); Research Council of NorwayLicens fulltext: CC BY License

PurposeThe authors seek to understand the process of digital servitization as a shift of manufacturing companies from the provision of standard products and services to smart solutions. Specifically, the authors focus on changes in the business model (i.e. the value proposition, the value delivery system and the value capture mechanism) for digital servitization.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine a Chinese air conditioner manufacturer, Gree, who became the global leader with their smart solutions. These solutions included performance-based contracts underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered air conditioners that automatically adjust to environmental changes and are capable of remote monitoring and servicing thanks to its Internet of things (IoT) technology.FindingsTo successfully offer smart solution value propositions, a manufacturer needs an ecosystem value delivery system composed of suppliers, distributors, partners and customers. Once the ecosystem relationships are well aligned, the manufacturer gains value with multiple value capture mechanisms (i.e. efficiency, accountability, shared customer value and novelty). To arrive at this point, a manufacturer has to pass through different stages that are characterized by both discontinuous and continuous interplay between business models and digital technologies. At the beginning of each stage, new value propositions and value delivery systems are first discontinuously created and then enabled with digital technology. As a result, new value capture mechanisms are activated. Meanwhile, the elements of the existing business model are continuously improved.Research limitations/implicationsBy combining process-perspective and business-model lenses, the authors offer nuanced insights into how digital servitization unfolds.Practical implicationsExecutives can obtain insights into the business model elements, they need to change over the course of digital servitization and how to manage the process.Originality/valueA longitudinal case study of a traditional manufacturer that has achieved stellar success through digital servitization business models development.

Manufacturing incumbents find it difficult to integrate AI in their traditional business models. This paper draws on the research question: How does manufacturing incumbents use AI for enabling business model innovation in industrial ecosystems? We use qualitative method in order to study four large global manufacturing incumbents that are transforming their business models with AI. We performed more than 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews with strategic key personnel in order to understand how they have succeeded with implementing AI and transforming business models. Our main contribution establishes the need for AI business-model innovation to be aligned with ecosystem innovation. Specifically, in short-term incumbents may use ecosystem reconfiguration strategy, whereas long-term strategies relate to ecosystem revitalization, and resilience. Thus, we contribute by connecting organizational microelements with ecosystem macro dimensions and provide an evolutionary model envisioning how incumbents attempt to promote strategic transitions in their firms and ecosystems.

Significant advancements within the fields of digitalization, electrification, and automation have enabled the development, testing, and implementation of increasingly advanced autonomous solutions. Current examples of industrial automation promise significant economic and sustainability-oriented benefits for industrial customers. Yet, implemented autonomous solutions have rarely advanced beyond ‘islands of autonomy’. Although enabling initial improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, they have not led to the systemic process improvements that fully integrated site-wide solutions can achieve. It is becoming increasingly clear that the major challenges in this shift extend beyond technology to focus on business transformation and ecosystem relationships. Yet, extant research offers few insights into these domains. There is a need to develop a business-focused maturity framework for autonomous solutions to contribute to a predominantly technical discourse and support equipment actors and their wider ecosystems in commercializing autonomous solutions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how industrial equipment manufacturers can align the development of technology, business models and ecosystem relationships for the advancement of autonomous solutions. We build on case studies that include 32 interviews from four industrial equipment manufacturers and their extended ecosystems of customers and partners. We capture our findings in a three-level maturity framework for industrial autonomous solutions. This framework unwraps the attributes of each level from the perspectives of technical system development, ecosystem configuration, and business model design and is complemented by three overarching principles for the successful commercialization of autonomous solutions.

Employing a panel setting of 88 counties in the State of Ohio over the five-year period ending in 2006, this study aims to investigate the applicability of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship in explaining the relationships between flagship enterprises, entrepreneurial clusters, and business entry rates. The study confirms the overall positive relationship between flagship enterprises and startup rates, and the negative relationship between entrepreneurial clusters and startup rates. It further demonstrates that the effect of clusters is moderated by local unemployment rates so that higher rates of unemployment weaken the negative impact of entrepreneurial clusters on startup rates. Based on the evidence collected, policy makers should increase support for flagship enterprises in their regions, and would-be business owners should consider locating their ventures in proximity to flagship companies.

We draw on the phenomenon of caste-based discrimination in India and signaling theory to assess whether microfinance credit scores improve the odds of female micropreneurs from a lower caste receiving loans and whether visible business characteristics further improve the odds of receiving microfinance loans. In a sample of 3,144 female microfinance loan applicants at a female-focused microloan enterprise in India, females from a lower caste, relative to those from a higher caste, have lower odds of receiving loans when their credit scores are below the mean. However, when females from a lower caste have credit scores higher than the mean, the odds of receiving a loan increase. The practical effect of size is small but meaningful. Loan applicants from a lower caste with a visible signal of business ability do not improve their chances of receiving a loan relative to those from a higher caste.

How should new venture ideas be framed in order to acquire human resources and gain support in times of crisis characterized by struggling or failing institutions and governmental organizations? To answer this question, we analyze 316 new venture ideas aimed at alleviating the COVID-19 crisis in 11 countries. We investigate different linguistic framing configurations and test their persuasive power for human resource acquisition. Our fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and linguistic analysis reveal that a “common enemy framing” is crucial for obtaining resources in crisis contexts. Non-profit venture ideas, specifically, may acquire resources via two additional paths: adding positive emotional content or using an entrepreneurial hustle framing with concrete calls to action. Our findings provide novel insights into entrepreneurial resource acquisition and idea framing during crises.

Corruption is prevalent in the developing world, negatively impacting small businesses. While research on corruption has focused on bribery from an economics-system perspective, there has been less research on the role of bribery from a more micro perspective. In this study, we explore bribery from the demand side by anchoring our qualitative, theory-building efforts in 12 new firms, 10 government officials, and 13 agents (for brokering bribery payments) in India. We found that in corrupt systems, the bureaucracy of government departments is deliberately made more bureaucratic by corrupt informal autonomous ventures within government departments that use informal human resource management systems to develop and perpetuate corruption and that recognize new legal constraints as an opportunity to use brokers to facilitate bribery. We highlight how these corrupt informal autonomous ventures engage in and perpetuate corruption, a practice that is destructive to the government, to small businesses, and to the people’s confidence in the nation.