Balancing specialized and generic capabilities in the provision of integrated solutions

Abstract

Integrated bundles of products and services are gaining importance in various sectors and are reshaping the competitive landscape of many industries. They also pose new challenges to established firms, who need to reconfigure their capabilities. Drawing upon the resource-based view and contingency theory, we test a model of fit between environmental requirements and integrated solutions capabilities in the IT sector. We used the model to interpret the current industry structure and analyze its dynamics. The analysis suggests the existence of four different configurations and indicates that differences in fit between environmental variables and strategic choices partially account for performance differences among integrated solution providers. The results also suggest that, although the provision of bundled products and services confers some a priori advantages to IS providers over generic IT firms, these advantages are greater for firms that are able to align their capabilities to the characteristics of their operational environment. JEL classification: L22.

Uncovering the role of cross-border strategic alliances and expertise decision centralization in enhancing product-service innovation in MMNEs

“…On the one hand, our study continues to build on the growing interest in studying cross-border and cross-sector strategic alliances (Gomes et al, 2016;Lew & Sinkovics, 2013;Luo, Wang, Jayaraman, & Zheng, 2013). On the other, it is amongst the first articles to study how the service function can be externalized through alliances (Bustinza et al, 2017a;Ceci & Masini, 2011;Durugbo & Erkoyuncu, 2016) or mergers and acquisitions (Xing et al, 2017) and to investigate the importance of expertise decision centralization in enhancing service-led growth strategies (Ghosh, 2013;Johnstone et al, 2014;Prajogo & Oke, 2016). More importantly, based on a unique survey-based sample of 285 MMNEs with head offices in the US, China, Germany, Japan and the UK, this study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to investigate the innovation outcome of service-unit internationalization.…”

“…This is especially true for MMNEs, which are assumed to have enough internal resources to undertake this function internally (Visnjic, Jovanovic, Neely, & Engwall, 2017;Woerkom & Zeijl-Rozema, 2017). The first research considering a different strategic option was undertaken by Ceci and Masini (2011), who found that half of manufacturers work in partnerships with software firms to enhance and customize their products. This result was extended by Paiola et al (2013), who analysed the 'make or buy' decision of service capabilities.…”

“…Research to date has focused on internal provision of services (Baines et al, 2017). Our extensive review of the servitization literature reveals that only a small number of studies acknowledge the role of external partners in enhancing product-service innovation (Bigdeli, Bustinza, Vendrell-Herrero, Baines, 2017;Bustinza et al, 2017a;Ceci & Masini, 2011;Chiva, Ghauri, & Alegre, 2014;Durugbo & Erkoyuncu, 2016;Paiola, Saccani, Perona, & Gebauer, 2013;Xing, Liu, Tarba, & Cooper, 2017). Moreover, whilst recent studies have started to look at how service provision can be developed externally through collaborative partnerships with KIBS firms (Bustinza et al, 2017a) and mergers and acquisitions (Xing et al, 2017), the crossborder component of those agreements is still underexplored.…”

Interorganizational collaboration and firm innovativeness: Unpacking the role of the organizational environment

“…Coping strategies involve conforming through mimicking, professionalization and formalization or avoidance of a specific segment altogether (Suchman, 1995). These strategies can be costly, difficult to implement or dilute the newness of the innovation under development (Ceci & Masini, 2011). Collaboration with a legitimate partner for that segment can be an effective way to overcome this liability.…”

A Service Engineering framework to design and assess an integrated product-service

“…[8,2]. Overcoming this hitchreferred to as the servitization paradox in the literature [9] -represents a major managerial challenge: companies need to re-design their organisational principles, structures, processes [8], capabilities [10], as well as the relationships with customers [11] and suppliers [12]. Indeed, the design and development of a PSS raise new issues; the service component introduces new requirements that are less (or not at all) relevant in a traditional, product-based business model.…”