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In this paper we appraise the ways in which use of closed-system proprietary product architectures versus open-system modular product architectures is likely to influence the dynamics and trajectory of new product market formation. We compare the evolutions of new markets in China for gas-powered two-wheeled vehicles (G2WVs) based (initially) on closed-system proprietary architectures and for electric-powered two-wheeled vehicles (E2WVs) based on open-system modular architectures. We draw on this comparison to suggest ways in which the use of the two different kinds of architectures as the basis for new kinds of products may result in very different patterns and speeds of new market formation. We then suggest some key implications of the different dynamics of market formation associated with open-system modular architectures for both the competence-based strategic management (CBSM) of firms and for technology and economic development policies of governments.

Specifically, we suggest how the use of open-system modular product architectures as the basis for new products is likely to result in dynamics of new market formation that call for new approaches to the strategic management of innovation and product creation. We also suggest technology and economic development policies favoring use of open-system modular architectures may stimulate new market formation and related economic development by providing platforms for accelerating technology development and dissemination, facilitating the formation of an industrial base of assemblers and component suppliers, assisting new firms in building customer relationships, enabling more geographically diffused economic development within countries, and facilitating development of export markets. We also suggest directions for further research into the potential for open-system modular product architectures to enable bottom-of-the-pyramid innovation processes, frugal engineering in developing economies, and development of low-cost product variations more generally.

Entrepreneurial firms such as professional service firms (PSFs) face constant challenges to acquire resources, one of the greatest of which is the challenge to win client engagements. Although rhetoric is at the center of the challenge to win client engagements, scholars have not identified what rhetorical strategies are the most persuasive to potential clients. By exploring one type of PSF, architecture firms, we argue that PSFs can compete for and legitimate themselves with clients by deploying institutional logics that provide symbolic frameworks and meaning. Since multiple institutional logics exist in society, a critical question for a PSF is which logic is most persuasive to clients. We analyze architecture firms’ written pitches to predict which rhetoric strategies win the valuable resource of a client engagement for a multiclient state project. Our results identify that rhetoric deploying a “profession” logic was most effective whereas a “business” logic was counter-productive in obtaining client engagements and securing resources for the firm.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the organizational reconfiguration of offshoring on firms’ strategies. A consequence of offshoring is the need to reintegrate the geographically relocated organizational activities into a coherent organizational architecture. In order to do this, firms need a high degree of architectural knowledge, which is typically gained through learning by doing. We therefore argue that firms with more offshoring experience are more likely to include organizational objectives in their offshoring strategies. We develop and find support for this hypothesis using a mixed-method approach based on a qualitative case study and comprehensive data from the Offshoring Research Network. These findings contribute to research on the organizational design and architecture of offshoring and the dynamics of organizational architectures.

Most research on branding highlights the role of associations for a single brand. Many firms, however, have multiple brands and/or different versions of one brand. The latter is largely the case for many corporate brands. This paper aims to broaden the understanding of corporate brand associations and their transfer within the firm’s brand and product portfolio. In particular, this paper also examines the concept of corporate brand innovativeness and the influence of brand architecture as supportive and restrictive boundary conditions for its transfer.

This conceptual paper explains the nature, benefits and challenges of corporate brand innovativeness within the context of a firm’s brand architecture. On the basis of a literature review, the authors provide an overview of the domain and derive avenues for future research.

Research and practice have not fully realised the importance of corporate brand images for supporting a firms’ product portfolio. In particular, (corporate) marketing managers need to consider the potential value of favourable perceptions of corporate brand innovativeness across products and the moderating role of brand architecture.

More empirical research is needed to understand the reciprocal relationship and transfer between corporate and product brand associations and equity.

A corporate marketing perspective allows firms to use corporate brand associations to support products and services for that brand. This paper discusses perceived corporate brand innovativeness as one particularly important corporate brand association.

The authors discuss the use of corporate brand associations under the consideration of brand architectures and boundaries and draw on several research streams in the brand management literature. Much of the branding and innovation literature centres on the product level; research on corporate brand innovativeness has been relatively neglected.

This paper aims to understand what prevents established law firms from embracing digitalization and discusses barriers to solving the emerging ambidexterity problem. Law firms have been organized in the same way for decades. However, digital opportunities are emerging and new competitors are challenging established firms. This presents established law firms with an ambidexterity problem: How can law firms simultaneously uphold their successful way of working while entering a new world of digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning?

Previous research suggests that law firms are slow in digital transformation, compared to other Professional Service Firms (PSFs). In this paper, the authors explore why this happens. Interview data from representatives in law firms are complemented with data from architects as well as legal industry data and field notes. The data have been analyzed to spot patterns and emerging themes.

The authors find that established law firms face structural and cultural barriers to applying ambidextrous solutions. When comparing law firms with architecture firms, the authors see that while established architecture firms have combined digital exploration with ongoing exploitation, established law firms have focused on exploitation, leaving digital exploration to new legal tech firms. This difference can be attributed to industry context and professional culture.

This paper shows that both structural and contextual ambidexterity is a challenge for established law firms. This paper contributes to the understanding of barriers to embrace digital technology, and supports practitioners in efforts to remove these barriers.

This paper is a step toward a sustainability-based view of firm performance, which focuses on how companies may achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in a circular economy that is increasingly dominated by sustainability.

This is a conceptual research paper, which provides a coherent basis for the diverse literature about sustainability, corporate social responsibility, creating shared value, shared value innovation, sustainable design and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The paper complements extant reviews and dynamic frameworks, such as the natural resource-based view and the innovation-based approach, to understand how firms may profit from sustainability in their business ecosystems with multiple stakeholders concerning the triple bottom line beyond financial performance. A firm’s sustainability architecture at multiple organizational levels includes interdependent components reflecting environmental, social and economic sustainability, which enable firms to achieve more value and/or do less harm. The intertemporal renewal of this architecture and its interdependencies with non-sustainability components highlight the dynamics of sustainability transformations for understanding the sustainability–performance relationship.

This paper contributes to sustainability research by developing a conceptual framework, which may be a basis for integrating the variety of management-related sustainability research. It further adds to research into competitive advantage by clarifying how firms may profit from sustainability. Moreover, the conceptual framework contributes to business ecosystem research because it considers internal factors in an organization as well as external factors in a firm’s environment. Finally, this paper offers new insights into strategy dynamics because the intertemporal perspective of changing a firm’s sustainability architecture underscores the need for continuous sustainability transformations.

The management of reputation and status is central to creative professional service firms (CPSFs) rendering the internationalisation process a particular challenge. The authors build on arguments that internationalisation requires moving from outsidership to insidership within client networks and focus on how CPSFs build signals about quality to start this process. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The exploration draws from the international business, professional services and organisational status bodies of literature. A multiple case study design was developed comprising ten Irish architecture firms. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted.

The findings clarify how relationships start in the internationalisation process through signal building about quality. This allows CPSFs to join client networks moving from outsidership to insidership. The findings systemise three different approaches for CPSFs: from outsidership to insidership within a local market network, within a global industry network and within a global project network.

Research within other sectoral and geographical contexts could support transferability of the findings.

The study has implications for international business strategies as it identifies multiple paths to relevant network insidership and the tactical responses managers can use to achieve this.

The authors believe that incorporating signal-building mechanisms into the internationalisation process is a novel approach to theorizing about how CPSFs move from outsidership to insidership. The authors offer important theoretical insights into the international business, professional service firm and organisational status literatures. CPSF business leaders should benefit as it helps them to focus on a portfolio of signal-building approaches that can start the internationalisation process.

This study aims to explore how firms can configure their organisational architectures in ways that limit ethical transgressions of their corporate political activities (CPAs).

This conceptual work is informed by existing research into organisational architecture and ethical decision-making, combined with illustrative examples of firms’ political actions derived from secondary and primary data sources.

Findings suggest that the ways that firms assign decision-making authority and design performance management systems can, depending on their combined configuration, either help or hinder the promotion of ethical CPA practice.

The study provides practitioners with a useful tool for reflecting on the organisational levers they can pull to shield their firms from the financial and reputation damage associated with objectionable conduct in their political activities.

Whilst previous research studies emphasise the importance of statutory guidelines, self-regulation or corporate codes for promoting ethical CPA, this study argues that organisational design is an important yet overlooked antecedent of a firm’s ability to practice CPA ethically and responsibly.

The leading frameworks of internationalization have contributed significantly to our knowledge of how firms internationalize, but do not fully explain how firms actually create and capture value from customers when internationalizing their activities. Understanding the value creation and capture activities defining their business model(s) is critical for firms moving into less familiar markets, and is particularly relevant for service firms where variability is an inherent feature of the firm/client experience. To address this gap, we take a business model perspective to analyze 144 internationalization events of 10 professional service firms. We find that the case firms adopted four different business models when internationalizing, and that single firms may utilize portfolios of business models. Our findings contribute to both the services internationalization and business model literatures by showing how variability in the internationalization process substantiates the need for business model portfolios.

The purpose of this paper is to locate different value creation logic contingencies within the resource management framework. While Sirmon et al. discuss how external environmental contingencies, such as environmental munificence, impact resource management, this paper aims to discuss a second key contingency; that is how the firm's choice of value creation logics impacts its resource management choices. This paper seeks to argue that management of the firm's resources and capabilities is contingent on the value creation logic employed by the firm.

This paper reviews three value creation logics: value shop, value network, and value chain and then integrates them within the resource management framework.

A review of extant literature indicates that value shop firms, value network firms, and value chain firms enact very different environments and thus require very different resources and capabilities to support their value creation approaches. It is argued that Sirmon et al.'s resource management framework should reflect these differences.

This paper points to new directions for research in value creation logic theory and provides a basis for future empirical work.

This paper argues that a mismatch between a firm's value creation logic and its resource management practices will have an adverse impact on the firm's performance.

This study is one of the first to integrate Stabell and Fjeldstad's value creation logic theory with Sirmon et al.'s resource management framework.