Outside in — To Capture the In-betweens: Organizing the Sociotechnical Embedding Process of New Technology

Abstract

The chapter pays specific attention to the organizing and reorganizing process of the embedding of new technology. The aim is to increase the understanding of how a focal technology is incrementally aligned into a customer’s different business settings. Embedding becomes subject to intense organizing efforts. It becomes a struggle with activating different features of the focal technology by forging and modifying the resource interfaces between the focal technology and customer resources.

The organizing efforts are about seeking, in an explorative mood, for resource interfaces between the focal technology and the customer resources. This organizing process enables the identification of new adaptation opportunities for technology embedding processes, whereby the focal technology obtains certain feature and values.

A systematically developed knowledge of resource interfaces is a key for activating different features of the focal technology and thereby facilitating its embedding into the customer’s various business settings. This is described in a single case study in the chapter. This case and the analysis show how a supplier and a customer struggle with developing resource interface knowledge to activate the different features of the focal technology, thereby facilitating its embedding process. The first part of the chapter establishes a theoretical framework, followed in the second part by the case study and analysis. The concluding discussion emphasizes the importance of understanding and managing various interfaces as part of the organizing processes.

Citation

Tian, M. (2018), "Outside in — To Capture the In-betweens: Organizing the Sociotechnical Embedding Process of New Technology", Andersson, P., Axelsson, B. and Rosenqvist, C. (Ed.) Organizing Marketing and Sales, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 209-222. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78754-968-520181013