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The purpose of this study is to increase the current understanding of how public sector organizations dynamically balance exploration and exploitation of digital initiatives, i.e. the enactment of digital ambidexterity.

This study uses Zimmermann, Raisch and Cardinal’s perspective of configurational practices for addressing the enactment of digital ambidexterity. The method comprises a qualitative, interpretative case study of a large municipality in Sweden, using both interviews and secondary data.

Through the perspective of configurational practices, the study identifies and describes a set of sub-practices that constitute the enactment of digital ambidexterity. This is then used for theorizing how configurational practices involve the balancing of closeness and distance.

This study is limited by being a single, non-longitudinal case of a Swedish municipality that has implications for generalizability and transferability. Moreover, it opens up for new perspectives to the future study of the enactment of ambidexterity in the public sector.

Organizations striving for digital ambidexterity are recommended to use the configurational approach to assess and design their governance to build ambidextrous capabilities through a combination of closeness and distance.

This study is aimed at strengthening public sectors abilities for continued relevance for its stakeholders over time. With increased need for digital innovation within the public sector, the findings and recommendations derived from the study lead to increased innovation capability, which in turn is expected to lead to increased relevance of services.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that addresses how ambidexterity is enacted within the public sector following the configurational approach. As such, it opens up for new perspectives on organizational ambidexterity.

In literature, it is recognized that there is no universal set of critical success factors (CSFs) applicable to all projects. The goal of this research is to validate a theoretical model which considers that CSFs’ influence on project success (PS) is configurational, that CSFs combine to influence PS.

The authors proposed a theoretical framework which operationalizes CSFs considering contingency and institutional theories' terms, as external contingencies, organizational resources and project strategies, which influence PS. The framework is validated through a qualitative approach on 18 social projects implemented by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Based on the conducted semistructured interviews with NGO managers or project managers, 91 instances when CSFs combine to influence PS were identified.

The dominant path reveals the combination of CSFs in terms of strategies adopted to face contingencies (70 instances), another as resources which moderate managers' strategies (14 instances), and in seven instances positive contingencies and resources combine and influence the PS. The results reveal that CSFs combine in reactive and dynamic ways to influence PS.

The research contributes to the vast literature on projects' success by adopting a different perspective. Configurational theory explains project management and projects' complexity better than the traditional approaches, which have a rather correlational perspective.

This paper aims to conceptualize and characterize service ecosystems, addressing calls for research on this important and under-researched topic.

The authors draw on four meta-theoretical foundations of S-D logic – resource integration, resource density, practices and institutions – providing a new integrated conceptual framework of ecosystem well-being. They then apply this conceptualization in the context of a complex healthcare setting, exploring the characteristics of ecosystem well-being at the meso level.

This study provides an integrated conceptual framework to explicate the nature and structure of well-being in a complex service ecosystem; identifies six key characteristics of ecosystem well-being; illustrates service ecosystem well-being in a specific healthcare context, zooming in on the meso level of the ecosystem and noting the importance of embedding a shared worldview; provides practical guidance for managers and policy makers about how to manage complex service ecosystems in their quest for improving service outcomes; and offers an insightful research agenda.

This research focuses on service ecosystems with an illustration in one healthcare context, suggesting additional studies that explore other industry contexts.

Practically, the study indicates the imperative for managing across mutually adapting levels of the ecosystem, identifying specific new practices that can improve service outcomes.

Examining well-being in the context of a complex service ecosystem is critical for policymakers charged with difficult decisions about balancing the demands of different levels and actors in a systemic world.

The study is the first to conceptualize and characterize well-being in a service ecosystem, providing unique insights and identifying six specific characteristics of well-being.

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to investigate how a focal market actor may design or redesign business models for improved value co-creation.

Findings – We posit that value is co-created in use as actors integrate resources in practices, which makes practices a fundamental unit of value creation. Greater density of resources, relevant to a specific practice and to the goals or mission of the actor, corresponds to greater value. The role of a provider is to support other actors in their value-creation processes by providing resources that ‘fit’ into their practices.

We identify 12 categories of business model design elements that need to be defined and developed in parallel. We conclude that a focal actor needs to strive for both intra-actor and inter-actor (meso-level) configurational fit of business model elements in order to enable purposeful co-creation in specific practices.

Finally, we propose that meso-level configurations develop in a three-phase process of origination, mobilization and stabilization. A focal actor wishing to improve co-creation in a network needs to develop value propositions not only for customers but also for other actor domains. Overall, the performative power of a market actor is dependent on its network position, the relative strength of its business model and the actor's ability to author compelling meanings.

Originality – The research contributes to the discussion on value co-creation by identifying three shifts in the unit of analysis: (1) we argue that use-value is co-created as actors integrate resources in practices, rendering practices a fundamental unit of analysis, (2) as practices are outcomes of business models, we identified business model design as a key unit of analysis for the improvement of value co-creation and (3) our view on business models is network-centric and we focus on how to introduce new business model elements in a specific actor network.

Practical implications – The realization of the fact that value creation occurs in networks of interdependent actors pinpoints the need for increased transparency both between functional silos and between actors. The business model framework identifies 12 design elements, which can act as a ‘checklist’ for managers wanting to engage in co-creative business models.

This study aims to explore corporate governance (CG) practices that can lead to firms’ better performance in different organizational life cycles. The authors propose a configurational approach to explore how a set of CG practices combine in bundles to achieve high performance outcomes for firms across their corporate life cycles.

Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was used to analyze a sample of data of 21 countries and 9 industries. Data referred to the period of 9 years extending from the year 2005 to the year 2013.

This study reveals that there are multiple CG practices that exist through firms that can achieve high firm performance. Moreover, CG practices combine in different ways for firms in their growth, maturity and declining stages.

This study demonstrates the value of using a configurational analytical approach to explore both the firm and country-specific CG practices (together) that engage firms to achieve the desired level of performance across the corporate life cycles.

The current study draws attention to the policymakers’ need to assess the current level of regulatory and competitive development of their countries and form policy accordingly. The approach used in the current research study not only offers the linkages between CG and performance to managers as incentives to comply with regulation but also to view CG-related activity as a strategic move.

The approach used in the current research study not only offers the linkages between CG and performance to managers as incentives to comply with regulation but also to view CG-related activity as a strategic move.

This study broadening the focus of CG studies to include a rigorous explanation of the global CG phenomena and to provide effective solutions for the practitioners.

This study demonstrates the value of using a configurational analytical approach to explore both the firm and country-specific CG practices (together) that engage firms to achieve the desired level of performance across the corporate life cycles.

This paper aims to go a step further in the analysis of double fit in the human resource management (HRM) strategy context, exploring how its effect on performance is influenced by employees’ perceptions about the HRM strategy. Traditionally, the literature has considered the need for a double fit (horizontal and vertical) in the design of HRM strategies. However, as recent critical reviews have argued, a deeper theoretical analysis seems to be needed to understand fully how they affect organisational performance, and why firms with similar levels of alignment have different human resource outcomes.

Based on the literature review, the paper proposes a new theoretical model combining two fields of the strategic HRM literature which had been traditionally disconnected: the double fit approach and the literature on employee satisfaction and involvement. The design of the HRM strategy is reviewed considering the classical distinction between universalistic, contingent, contextual and configurational perspectives.

The findings of this paper provide an alternative model to examine the double fit in the HRM strategy context.

Drawing on these approaches, the paper proposes the introduction of the “system strength” construct, which measures the perceived robustness of the HRM system, as a moderator of the effects of double fit on organisational performance.

Workforce diversity is considered one of the main challenges for human resource management in modern organizations. Despite its strategic importance, the majority of models in this field implicitly consider workforce as a generic and homogeneous category, and do not take into account cultural differences among employees. The aim of this paper is to present a systematic review of the literature on diversity among employees in strategic human resource management (SHRM). The objective of this conceptual analysis is to identify limitations in previous research and unresolved issues that could drive future research in this field.

To develop this conceptual analysis, the paper reviews previous literature on SHRM, drawing on the distinction between the universalistic, contingent and configurational perspectives. Each of these approaches is explored, looking for the way in which they have treated workforce diversity and cross‐culturality.

The paper concludes that managing a heterogeneous workforce requires a holistic transformation of human resource strategies. Nevertheless, efforts to define cross‐cultural and diversity‐oriented models still remain undeveloped. Limitations of previous research in the diversity‐SHRM field are indentified in the paper.

Drawing on the limitations of the treatment given to diversity in SHRM research, the paper identifies four research questions that still need to be addressed: deeper analysis of the concept of diversity, introduction of psychological processes mediating the diversity‐performance relationship, development of diversity oriented SHRM typologies and redefinition of performance indicators to measure the effects of diversity.

This paper proposes a theoretical model to illustrate present state of the art and future research lines in the fields of diversity, cross‐cultural management and SHRM.

This chapter shows how configurational approaches can be a valuable inquiring system for examining and understanding complex messy phenomena in the area of digital business strategy in turbulent environments such as digital ecodynamics. Digital ecodynamics is defined as the holistic confluence among environmental turbulence, dynamic capabilities, and IT systems – and their fused dynamic interactions unfolding as an ecosystem. With fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) we analyze firm-level field survey data and describe how IT systems, organizational dynamic capability and environmental turbulence simultaneously combine to result in multiple configurations, which have different causal structures to produce competitive firm performance. This equifinality shows how configurational approaches can create new practical insights in digital ecodynamics by suggesting multiple strategic options from which organizations can choose the best solution that fits their context.

This paper aims to apply innovation networks (INs) theory to the context of domesticated markets, where innovation triggers deinstitutionalization. In such contexts, the success of INs depends on their capacity to transform the business field in which they are embedded, so that it accommodates innovative business models. Such “institutional INs” beget a meso-level finality, and this poses different requirement on their effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to confront extant models of collaborative innovation in networks with this specific context to offer exploratory insights into how innovation can be achieved in domesticated contexts and what the differential implications are for network configurations and strategic “reinstitutionalization” practices.

Based on an illustrative embedded case study in the Dutch steel industry, a framework offering indications on the effectiveness of discrete configurational dimensions and their fit with reinstitutionalization practices for institutional INs is suggested. The case builds on 26 semi-structured interviews and 4 focus groups with top managers in the industry. As the aim is to extend theoretical models of INs to this under-researched context, an abductive approach to theorizing, consistent with the extended case method, is adopted.

Findings suggest that collaborating to redesign an institutionalized business field collectively implies a more explicit attention to interdependencies within the business field.

Besides suggesting modifications to extant frames regarding heterogeneity in and the configuration of networks, this paper has some practical implications. The framework proposed offers managers some support in the largely ignored issue of developing a collective action network. With these findings, we aspire to stimulate further research into this relevant, yet underdeveloped, topic.

The study extends IN theory toward innovation realization in domesticated contexts. In such contexts, IN’s success depends on their capacity to transform the business field in which they are embedded, so that it enables innovative ways of creating end-customer value. Besides suggesting a new area for theorizing about innovation networks, institutional innovation networks are also a useful template for institutional innovation and collective action research. The paper offers a framework to support managers in the largely ignored challenge of developing a collective action network. In an increasingly transparent, connected and consolidated business environment, such a challenge becomes ever more essential.

Organizations worldwide are faced with the challenge of motivating and retaining employees. In addressing this challenge, organizations may use a variety of incentive pay practices to align employee behavior with organizational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the incentive pay practice configurations or bundles adopted by private sector firms across 14 different countries from several geographic regions. The patterns of incentive pay configuration adoption for each country are evaluated.

Cluster analysis, ANOVA, and multilevel random-intercept logistic modeling are utilized on firms from the 2009 CRANET HRM survey.

Phase I of this study empirically identifies four different configurations (contingent rewarder, incentive minimizer, incentive maximizer, and profit rewarder) derived from three incentive pay practices (individual bonus, team bonus, and profit sharing practices) that firms adopt. Phase II evaluates adoption rates by country and finds striking differences in incentive configurations that firms avoid or adopt. Some countries have clear adoption preferences (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Japan, and France). In other countries firms employ a variety of incentive bundles (e.g. USA, UK, and Germany) and seem to be less constrained by country-based institutional factors.

Incentive practices are typically studied independent of the configuration of practices that firms select. This research helps us understand the typical bundles in use.

Organizations worldwide are faced with the need to motivate employees. This research maps the incentive bundles preferred in each of 14 countries.

Employees in different countries come to work with expectations about pay and these shape their perceptions of incentive fairness.

Research on incentives has tended to focus independently on specific practices and ignore the reality that organizations generally select multiple practices. This research identifies the combinations of incentive practices generally used and does so with firms from 14 countries from various world regions. These results also offer a map of the incentive bundles preferred in each country.