60 research outputs found
Path Dependent Platforms : A Process Perspective on Enterprise Ecosystem Governance
In their editorial to the workshop on the role of platforms for enterprise ecosystems, Beimborn et al. (2011: 4) emphasize that “the emergence of platforms as backbones for inter-organizational cooperation and collaboration also impacts the way economic activity is organized.” In a similar vein, Tiwana et al. (2010: 686) argue that platform-based enterprise ecosystems actually constitute “complex alliance networks”, where an approach grounded in literature on inter-organizational relationships might be a helpful complement to “the burgeoning exclusively macro, two-sided markets literature in economics.”
Conceptualizing the relationships between platform and module providers as historically contingent, inter-organizational processes exhibits both new explanatory potentials and methodological difficulties. Scholars in the tradition of the two-sided markets paradigm such as Economides and Katsamakas (2006) ask how collaborative or competitive the relationship between platform leader and providers of complementary goods should be. In contrast, focusing on inter-organizational relations (e.g., Dyer and Singh 1998) would acknowledge that such a question cannot be decided in the abstract but rather depends, among others, on a platform’s governance history and expected future.
Coming from such an organization-theory perspective, it might sound odd to combine such an approach with insights from path dependence theory, which again roots in works by the economists David (1985) and Arthur (1989). The reason for this choice is threefold: first, while we do want to strengthen the role of managerial contingency in platform governance, we want to warn against overstating managerial leeway too. Second, as pointed out by Langlois (2002: 25), modular innovation promoted by platforms might come at the cost of increasing costs of systemic innovation. Third, recent applications of path dependence theory in an organizational realm (see, for example, Sydow et al. 2009; Dobusch 2010) sensitize for rigidities or even lock-ins in particular, which may result from initially successful governance practices. All these points taken together imply following the recommendation by Tiwana et al. (2010: 685) to “explicitly consider the possibility of nonlinear and threshold effects.
A Review of Positive Feedback Mechanisms in Technology Markets, Regional Clusters, and Organizations
The concept of path dependence has often been criticized as vague and only
narrowly applicable. Although we can find some very refined definitions of the
concept, we also find a wide range of empirical phenomena being described as
path-dependent. We argue that more detailed accounts of the positive feedback
mechanisms that form paths can take path dependence beyond this state of being
overdetermined, but under-specified. Reviewing three well-described cases of
path-dependent dynamics in technology markets, regional clustering, and
organizations, we define a core set of positive feedback mechanisms that
constitute path dependence at different analysis levels and clarify the
relationship between positive feedback and increasing returns. We show that
path-dependent processes, that is, processes driven by positive feedback that
veer toward rigidity or lock-in, can be (but do not have to be) found under
many labels, including structural inertia, coevolution, or institutional
persistence. We conclude that a precise definition of path dependence does not
need to be at odds with the concept’s widespread use in understanding
organizational and industrial development processes
Transnational Copyright: Misalignments between Regulation, Business Models and User Practice
In this paper we analyse discursive struggles over what is referred to as legal and illegal user practices in the internet as an outcome of regulatory uncertainty. The latter, in turn, is examined in the context of a multi-layered transnational copyright regime characterised by three features: the absence of an universally recognized single authority in charge of law-making, fragmented and partially contradicting forms of regulation of global, national and sectoral scope, and considerable indeterminacy of rule interpretation and application arising from the variety and distinctiveness of local usage contexts. We argue that notions of legality and illegality are used strategically by different actors to resolve perceived misalignments between regulation, business models and user practices. The results indicate that the meaning of legality and illegality, while often presented as well-defined distinction, in the case of internet user practices is often far from clear-cut and generally accepted. In fact, copyright industry, intermediaries, users and regulators are involved in what Black (2002) refers to as “regulatory conversations”. Analysing these regulatory conversations offers a revealing entry point to study how under conditions of transnational regime complexity and diffusion of new technology solutions to regulatory uncertainty are negotiated in a multiplicity of social contexts
Making an Impression Through Openness: How Open Strategy-Making Practices Change in the Evolution of New Ventures
While previous open strategy studies have acknowledged open strategy's function as an impression management instrument, their focus has mostly been on short episodes. The impression management literature, meanwhile, pays openness scant attention. By studying how new ventures engage in open strategy-making, we track how open strategy-making and respective impression management benefits evolve over time. Specifically, we draw on a comparative case study of two firms' blog communication on strategy-related issues and corresponding audience responses over a four-year period. We identify three distinct modes of how organizations engage in open strategymaking with external audiences and show how each mode is related to a specific set of impression management effects. Having established the impression management functions of these modes, we then demonstrate how open strategy-making contributes to new ventures' quests for legitimacy as they evolve. In the launch phase, dialoguing with blog audiences helps a venture attract endorsements for its organization and products. As the venture grows, concentrating on broadcasting relevant strategic information may attract media audiences' additional support for pursuing openness as a desirable organizational practice
A Process Perspective on the Formation and Diffusion of Transnational Standards
Standards are receiving increasing attention, especially at the transnational
level where standardization aims at coherence and social ordering beyond the
nation-state. However, many attempts to bring about uniformity via formalized
standards fail. To understand better how such rules successfully span national
and organizational boundaries over time, we compare two cases of
standardization in international business. Both Windows desktop software and
International Accounting Standards demonstrate the need for a process
perspective to understand and explain social ordering through standards. Long-
lasting standardization processes require conceptualizing how different
sequences of transnational standardization relate to each other. We find that
at the core of such recursive cycles is the interplay of input and output
legitimacy
Copyright reform and business model innovation: regulatory propaganda at German music industry conferences
Inspired by new digital technologies, diverse actors in cultural and creative
industries propagate conflicting visions of how to adequately innovate – or
rather preserve and strictly enforce – copyright-related business models,
which has resulted in substantial amounts of regulatory uncertainty. Looking
at a decade of regulatory discourse at industry events in the popular music
industry in Germany, we investigate how these actors make sense of and
strategically shape this uncertainty in the process of industry
transformation. Our longitudinal argumentative discourse analysis reveals
cycles of regulatory propaganda of two discourse coalitions that do not engage
in debate, but aim to find support for competing business models among
regulators and the public. Organizing, canceling, and participating in
industry events are discursive strategies used effectively to transport their
claims by both industry lobbyists and challenging actors, but industry
incumbents are failing to use these sites for testing out and introducing new
business models. We conclude that regulatory struggles, not least at industry
events, mediate between disruptive technologies and business model innovation
To address the rise of predatory publishing in the social sciences, journals need to experiment with open peer review.
Predatory journals are here, but our attention to them is unevenly distributed. Most studies on predatory publishing have looked at the phenomenon in the natural and life sciences. In this post, Maximilian Heimstädt and Leonhard Dobusch analyse the harmful potential of predatory journals for social science and specifically management research. Identifying key threats posed by predatory publishing, they argue that open peer review could stand to mitigate some of these challenges and foster a more constructive form of knowledge production
Standardization Cycles: A Process Perspective on the Formation and Diffusion of Transnational Standards
Standards are receiving increasing attention, especially at the transnational level where standardization aims at coherence and social ordering beyond the nation-state. However, many attempts to bring about uniformity via formalized standards fail. To understand better how such rules successfully span national and organizational boundaries over time, we compare two cases of standardization in international business. Both Windows desktop software and International Accounting Standards demonstrate the need for a process perspective to understand and explain social ordering through standards. Long-lasting standardization processes require conceptualizing how different sequences of transnational standardization relate to each other. We find that at the core of such recursive cycles is the interplay of input and output legitimacy
Transnational Copyright: Misalignments between Regulation, Business Models and User Practice
In this paper we analyse discursive struggles over what is referred to as legal and illegal user practices in the internet as an outcome of regulatory uncertainty. The latter, in turn, is examined in the context of a multi-layered transnational copyright regime characterised by three features: the absence of an universally recognized single authority in charge of law-making, fragmented and partially contradicting forms of regulation of global, national and sectoral scope, and considerable indeterminacy of rule interpretation and application arising from the variety and distinctiveness of local usage contexts. We argue that notions of legality and illegality are used strategically by different actors to resolve perceived misalignments between regulation, business models and user practices. The results indicate that the meaning of legality and illegality, while often presented as well-defined distinction, in the case of internet user practices is often far from clear-cut and generally accepted. In fact, copyright industry, intermediaries, users and regulators are involved in what Black (2002) refers to as “regulatory conversations”. Analysing these regulatory conversations offers a revealing entry point to study how under conditions of transnational regime complexity and diffusion of new technology solutions to regulatory uncertainty are negotiated in a multiplicity of social contexts
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