Make-or-buy configurational approaches in product-service ecosystems and performance

This research examines firm boundary configurations for manufacturers' product-service offerings. We argue that the building of a product-service ecosystem through collaboration with service providers in certain types of business services can increase performance as a result of the superior knowledge-based resources coming from specialized partners. By using fuzzy set qualitative analysis on a sample of 370 multinational manufacturing enterprises (MMNEs), the results reveal that effective servitization is heterogeneous across manufacturing industries and across business service offerings. The findings indicate that most industries achieve their highest performance through collaborations with value-added service providers in two out of three of the service continuum stages (Base and Intermediate services); while keeping the development of Advanced services in-house. The results help to contextualize the best practices for implementing service business models in MMNEs by detailing which service capabilities should be retained in-house and which should be outsourced to specialized partners in various industrial contexts.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Sustainable and traditional product innovation without scale and experience, but only for KIBS!

This study analyzes the ideal strategic trajectory for sustainable and traditional product innovation. Using a sample of 74 Costa Rican high-performance businesses for 2016, we employ fuzzy set analysis (qualitative comparative analysis) to evaluate how the development of sustainable and traditional product innovation strategies is conditioned by the business’ learning capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation in knowledge-intensive (KIBS) and non-knowledge-intensive businesses. The results indicate two ideal strategic configurations of product innovation. The first strategic configuration to reach maximum product innovation requires the presence of KIBS firms that have both an entrepreneurial and learning orientation, while the second configuration is specific to non-KIBS firms with greater firm size and age along with entrepreneurial and learning orientation. KIBS firms are found to leverage the knowledge-based and customer orientations that characterize their business model in order to compensate for the shortage of important organizational characteristics—which we link to liabilities or smallness and newness—required to achieve optimal sustainable and traditional product innovation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Innovation Paths in Knowledge Intensive Industries based on Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Knowledge-intensive industries has become a major source of competitive advantage and innovation. However, there is no general agreement about the innovation pathways of knowledge-intensive enterprises. A possible explanation for this might be that the complex pathways has thus far been studied using regression models that capture only the main regression effects. To address this issue, we use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis that examines relationships (even asymmetrical) between the enterprises’ innovation activity and all possible configurations of its determinants, including obstacles, knowledge sources, collaborative activities and R&D. We investigate this framework in the case study of German knowledge-intensive enterprises. The results show that several pathways act as sufficient conditions for product innovation. However, the effects of these conditions are asymmetric. In addition, the following complementary relationships between the determinants were observed: (1) public support and education knowledge source; (2) internal and external R&D and collaboration on innovation; and (3) internal and market knowledge source and publicly available knowledge acquired from other sources such as conferences, journals and professional associations. Thus, these findings may provide an explanation of the inconsistent effects observed in previous studies on product innovation

Wpływ konfiguracji technologii zrównoważonej produkcji przedsiębiorstw herbacianych w Chinach: w oparciu o metodę FsQCA

Using the survey data of 45 tea enterprises in Fujian Province, China, this paper adopted fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study the adoption of the sustainable production technologies by tea enterprises. The results show that there are two configurations for the path to achieve the adoption of high sustainable production technologies. The core condition combination of the first configuration is the existence of sustainable development capabilities, the degree of government support, and the resource and environmental endowment, while that of the second configuration is the existence of enterprise expected value, industrial organization mode and the resource and environmental endowment. Moreover, the path achieving non-highly sustainable production technologies adoption mainly summarized as a configuration. Specifically, the core condition is the absence of sustainable development capabilities, enterprise development strategies, and the resource and environmental endowments. Furthermore, some practical policy recommendations were put forward based on the above conclusions in this paper.Korzystając z danych ankietowych 45 przedsiębiorstw herbacianych w prowincji Fujian w Chinach, w niniejszym artykule przyjęto jakościową analizę porównawczą zbiorów rozmytych (fsQCA) w celu zbadania przyjęcia zrównoważonych technologii produkcji przez przedsiębiorstwa produkujące herbatę. Wyniki pokazują, że istnieją dwie konfiguracje ścieżki prowadzącej do przyjęcia wysoce zrównoważonych technologii produkcji. Podstawową kombinacją warunków pierwszej konfiguracji jest możliwość zrównoważonego rozwoju, stopnia wsparcia rządowego oraz wyposażenia w zasoby i środowisko, podczas gdy druga konfiguracja to wartość oczekiwana przedsiębiorstwa, tryb organizacji przemysłowej oraz zasobów i dotacja środowiskowa. Ponadto ścieżka prowadząca do przyjęcia niezbyt zrównoważonych technologii produkcji została podsumowana głównie jako konfiguracja. Podstawowym warunkiem jest brak możliwości zrównoważonego rozwoju, strategii rozwoju przedsiębiorstw oraz zasobów i środków środowiskowych. Ponadto w niniejszym dokumencie przedstawiono kilka praktycznych zaleceń dotyczących polityki opartych na powyższych wnioskach

The role of entrepreneurial skills as a vehicle for business growth: a study in Spanish start-ups

This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here https://riunet.upv.es. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.[EN] Purpose Business growth is one of the most studied areas over the years. However, with the current uncertainty and entrepreneurial dynamism it becomes relevant to consider new variables such as entrepreneurial skills and competencies that influence its development. Accordingly, this research refers to the impact that the individual's skills have on the entrepreneurial environment. For this purpose, a survey has been developed of employees of different organizations considering the variables of high degree of proactivity in the employees' attitude, entrepreneurial training, innovation, previous experience or risk aversion. Design/methodology/approach The research has been conducted through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and the result shows the differences between the combination of variables for business growth through the consideration of sales growth and profit. Findings The results of this research provide new insights that allow the development and boosting of business growth. Originality/value The main contribution of this work is to pay attention to the human team of startups and show the role that this has in their growth.Botella-Carrubi, D.; Ribeiro-Navarrete, S.; Ulrich, K.; Blanco González-Tejero, C. (2022). The role of entrepreneurial skills as a vehicle for business growth: a study in Spanish start-ups. Management Decision. 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-02-2022-016113

A new perspective to evaluate the antecedent path of adoption of digital technologies in major projects of construction industry: A case study in China

The adoption of digital technologies is key to the digital transformation of the construction industry. However, the current adoption of digital technologies is limited. This study uses China as a case, combines the DOI and TOE theories to identify impact factors of the adoption of digital technologies in major projects. The configuration analysis is complemented with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. As a result, the study constructs the “TOE-D Technology Adoption Antecedent Framework”, including 11 antecedents, and identifies three distinct configurations types, namely: “Needs-Resource-Collaboration”; “Resource” under high competitive pressure; and “Resource” under low competitive pressure. Comparing the configurations horizontally, the core or edge characteristics of factor in configurations are analyzed. The results can help major projects in the construction industry to ascertain a combination of elements, which promote the adoption of digital technologies so that project practitioners can make targeted and precise adjustments to enable digital transformation of the construction industry

A Qualitative Comparative Analysis on Chinese Non-Profit Organizations’ Rationalization

Existing researches about Chinese non-profit organizations' rationalization tended to lay particular stress on specific or "net" effects explained by a particular theoretical perspective, thereby rarely considered from the interrelation of various theoretical perspectives or from the configuration perspective and hereby summarizing the effects of different mechanisms in specific environments as well as their connections or alternatives. As an important methodology and tool which emphasizes combined action of multiple mechanisms, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) provides a possibility for the study. Through the meticulous sorting and analysis of 14 cases from three areas in Z Province of China by utilizing qualitative comparative analysis, this paper finds two important new findings. First, in terms of facilitating the rationalization of non-profit organizations, the mechanisms of competition, resource, and system are not simply replaceable by each other but complementary in many cases; especially, accordingly configurations are formed between system-related mechanism and resource mechanism and between system-related mechanism and competition mechanism, which constructs the critical path of Chinese non-profit organizations' rationalization. Second, the relationship among the different sub-mechanisms of the same theory is relatively complicated

Identifying the configurational paths to innovation in SMEs:a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study investigates the conditions leading to a higher level of innovation. More specifically, the study explores the impact of inter-organisational knowledge transfer networks and organisations' internal capabilities on different types of innovation in Small to Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) in the high-tech sector. A survey instrument was used to collect data from a sample of UK SMEs. The findings show that although individual factors are important, there is no need for a company to perform well in all the areas. The fsQCA, which enables the examination of the impacts of different combinations of factors, reveals that there are a number of paths to achieve better incremental and radical innovation performance. Companies need to choose the one that is closest to their abilities and fits best with their resources

Information technology-enabled explorative learning and competitive performance in industrial service SMEs: a configurational analysis

This is the author accepted manuscriptPurpose: As purveyors of knowledge-based and high value-added services to the manufacturing sector, industrial service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop the information technology (IT) capabilities that, in combination with other non-IT capabilities, enable their capacity for organizational learning (OL) and for explorative learning in particular. In this context, this study aims to identify the different causal configurations that account for the nonlinear complex interplay of IT capabilities for exploration and strategic capabilities for explorative learning as they affect these firms’ competitive performance. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data obtained from 92 industrial service SMEs were analyzed with a configurational approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings: As it allows for equifinality, the fsQCA analysis identified two sets of causal configurations that characterize the sampled firms’ explorative learning capability as it relates to competitive performance. In the first set, two configurations were equally associated with high innovation performance, whereas in the second set, four configurations were equally associated with high productivity. Originality/value: By viewing explorative learning as a dynamic capability that is enabled by the firm’s IT and strategic capabilities, the study contributes to OL theory by providing a more concrete or “operational” grounding, which allows for a greater practical applicability of this theory. By taking both the configurational and capability-based views of the OL-IT-performance causal framework, the authors provide an empirical basis for unraveling, explaining and understanding the complex non-linear relationships embedded within this framework

Inter-Firm Knowledge Transfer And Innovation In SMEs:A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

This study investigates the conditions leading to higher levels of innovation using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). More specifically, using fsQCA, this study explores the impact of inter-organisational knowledge transfer networks and organisations’ internal capabilities on different types of innovation in Small to Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) in the high-tech sector. A survey was used to collect data from a sample of UK SMEs. The findings show that although individual factors are important, there is no need for a company to perform well in all the areas to improve innovation performance. The fsQCA method, using different combinations of the key factors, revealed that there are many paths to achieve better incremental and radical innovation performance and companies need to choose the one that better matches to their abilities and fits with their resources