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Managing e‐government is invariably managing change. Despite plethora of literature on change management, the rate of success of e‐government projects is dismal, especially in developing countries. Deriving from strategy and change management literature, this paper seeks to present a new approach to strategize for better change outcomes in e‐government domain. A new construct of “continuity” is introduced and proposed to be managed concurrently with change forces to attain better delivery of strategic deliverables in e‐government projects.

Continuity and change forces affecting e‐government domain identified from the literature are statistically validated by conducting an “idea engineering” exercise. For this response from e‐government experts to a structured questionnaire is elicited to validate the forces, which are further modeled in the strategic framework proposed.

Drawing from strategy and change management literature, it is hypothesized that “managing change in e‐government can be better leveraged by consciously and concurrently managing continuity”. Based on expert survey, out of the initial six continuity and eight change forces proposed, only one continuity force has been dropped and the rest are further modeled in the framework. Propositions for future research and implications for policy makers and implementers are highlighted.

Given the low rate of success of e‐government initiatives, especially in developing countries, this framework may serve as an important approach to strategizing in e‐government domain and may be of value to not just the policy makers but also to other stakeholders like project planners, implementers and also the beneficiaries.

The value of this paper lies in the application of the concept of strategic management of continuity and change in e‐government domain; identification of continuity and change forces in e‐government; and proposing a model linking the “constructs of continuity and change” forces with strategic deliverables of e‐government.

Retail banking is mass market banking where individual customers use local branches of large commercial banks for services such as savings and checking accounts, mortgages, personal loans, car loans, debit cards, credit cards, insurance and other value added services. The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the retail banking business processes from the perspective of continuity and change and identify the factors that affect these processes and overall performance of the retail banking sector. The aim was to develop a flexible framework for managing forces of continuity and change in retail banking business processes from a strategic perspective.

The data on which this study is based were generated through secondary research using published sources and primary research through focused discussion with industry experts and personal interviews with over 100 experts from leading banks selected using a structured questionnaire.

It was found that most of the public sector banks scored high on the continuity forces and relatively low on the change forces. Most of the private‐sector banks studied scored high on continuity and also high on change forces making them more competitive, except one bank which is low on both the forces because it is a newly established bank. The study suggests that there is a need for public sector banks to focus their strategies on factors affecting change forces for the improvement of their overall performance in the long run.

The paper brings in the need for social responsibility for private sector banks and a need for a fine balance in forces of continuity and change for a long‐term sustainable business model.

This research paper represents one of the few efforts to study the business process management of retail banking in India from a strategic perspective and come out with a flexible strategic framework for managing forces of continuity and change for guiding this sector for its long‐term survival and growth. The flexible framework suggested and the C‐C Matrix can be of interest to researchers and practising managers to validate the applicability for other sectors, such as financial services, insurance, corporate finance, mortgages, risk management and other domains. The framework suggested can be adapted for application in the global context.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how continuity and change coexist in the work of institutional actors who can combine maintenance, disruption and/or creation. Past studies mention this coexistence without an explanation.

The paper develops a perspective through literature review.

Institutional actors are both socialized into the norm-oriented space of continuity and maintenance through their reciprocal relations and associated social knowledge and roles and disciplined into the goal-oriented space of change and disruption/creation through their power relations and associated expert discourse and subject positions. Their institutional existence indicates a particular combination of reciprocity and power and thus their work includes changing degrees of maintenance, disruption and creation, depending on the nature of this combination.

The paper points out research directions on the relational conditions of the actors, which facilitate or constrain their work toward institutional continuity or change.

Organizations whose concern is to continue the existing practices in a stable environment should emphasize reciprocal relations whereas organizations whose concern is to change those practices for more effectiveness in a dynamic environment should emphasize power relations. Also, too much emphasis on either relations leads to inflexibility or instability.

The paper provides an explanation on the sources of coexistence of continuity and change in institutional work. It also contributes to the discussions on contingency of institutions, resistance productive of institutional change, reflexivity of institutional actors and intersubjective construction of institutional work.

This research study identifies the factors influencing innovation and technology management in Indian manufacturing small- and medium -sized enterprises (SMEs) with a focus on the auto-ancillary sector. The study further investigates the impact of types of innovation on business performance. The purpose of this paper is to come up with a flexible strategic framework for managing innovation and technology in SMEs from a perspective of continuity and change.

The data on which this study is based were generated through secondary research using published sources and primary research. The study was done through group discussions with industry experts and personally focused interviews with 88 entrepreneurs from SMEs selected using a structured questionnaire.

The study shows SMEs pursuing more types of innovations display higher performance levels when compared to those pursuing fewer types of innovations. SMEs pursuing more types of innovations are significantly different from less innovating firms from the perspective of underlying change forces.

This research paper represents one of the few efforts to study innovation and technology management in SMEs and come up with a flexible strategic framework for managing forces of continuity and change for guiding this sector for long-term survival and growth. The flexible framework suggested, and the continuity and change matrix (C-C matrix), can be of interest to researchers and practising managers to validate the applicability for other sectors. The framework suggested can be adapted for application in a global context.

This study aims to represent an early attempt to define the notion of continuity and empirically illustrate its explanatory potential and methodological challenges.

This study combines historical and qualitative research techniques to conduct a qualitative analysis of continuity in the Jablkowski Brothers Department Store, a Polish centennial company. The paper highlights the potential synergies between historical and qualitative methods when applied to the analysis of long periods of time.

The authors find that using a theoretical framework of continuity provides novel ontological and epistemological insights into the nature of long-lived companies. Based on the findings, the authors present continuity in the context of existing theories and argue that it is a unique concept that deserves more scientific attention and rigorous empirical study.

This study contributes to the existing literature in three ways. First, it provides a brief, interdisciplinary overview of the concept of continuity. Second, it provides an empirical illustration of continuity analysis in a Polish centennial company with extremely discontinuous history. Finally, it positions continuity within the wider context of existing theories and shows how, through continuity, history can contribute to both the practice and theory of management.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) holds the potential to improve capabilities- and technology-based innovation, which will enable breakout for architectural, engineering, construction and operation and maintenance (AECO) companies, for international competitiveness. Though the top management of such companies is convinced on the utility of the applications, they are unsure on the strategy of implementing the same. The objective of this research is to suggest a strategy framework for digital transformation of the AECO value chain.

The nascent level of research on 4IR in construction necessitated the adoption of the integrative review methodology for the study. Extensive literature review of research on strategy and 4IR has been utilized to establish the validity of the first two pillars, namely “a strategy of simple rules in a complex environment; and deployment of dynamic capabilities.” The validation of a construct for the third pillar of “confluence of change and continuity forces” has been achieved via hypothesis testing of data obtained through a questionnaire survey.

The present study has integrated three diverse ideas of strategy, named as the pillars, to facilitate sustainable digital transformation. Within the third pillar, top three continuity forces which offer resistance to change are organization culture, existing delivery processes and networks, and existing standard operating procedures. On the other hand, the leading drivers of change are needs of competitiveness; global industry trends and the advent of new technologies/innovations.

This provides a practical approach to operationalize digital transformation of the AECO at an organization level. The validation relied on opinion and perspectives of a sample frame in the Indian context, which was its limitation.

This paper suggests a strategy framework of three pillars to help address specific strategy dilemmas during implementation of digital transformation of particular organizations in AECO. The study contributes to both theory and practice by helping leaders of AECO companies, associations, policymakers and the academia to strategize transformations successfully.

The objective of this paper is to present a broad‐based tool primarily for the use of practitioners at the senior and middle management levels, to analyze the innovation management processes within their organizations and assess their impact on innovation and firm performance. It is contended that these processes are dichotomous because of the invariable tension between continuity and change‐related aspects to be coped with.

A single case (Moser Baer India Limited, an Indian firm and one of the world's large manufacturers of optical storage media) illustrating the use of a flowing stream strategy framework is presented. The theory that is the basis of the approach is not expounded at length in the interests of the basic target audience.

The paper is an attempt to present a structured approach to strategy making. Realizing the hazards of organizational impediments in the implementation of strategy, only an illustrative approach is been indicated, paving the way for further investigation.

The limitations associated with a single case methodology may prevail to some extent. The data are context‐bound; however, no attempt to draw general implications has been made. The purpose is more to present the use of a practical tool rather than to advance theoretical knowledge.

The tool presented may be useful across a range of organizations, with minor adaptations.

The paper is original and adds value in terms of the above.

This paper aims to scrutinize and analyze the continuity and change in US foreign policy toward the Gulf region, with a comparison between the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Also, it explores the nature of the changes in US foreign policy toward the Gulf region to explain the factors that lead to change and when this change occurs. Policymakers were one of the most important factors that led to the occurrence of change in US policy. Therefore, the study also focuses on decision-makers as an engine of change in foreign policy. In this vein, the study seeks to answer the following question: what is the extent of continuity and change in US foreign policy toward the Gulf region under both Bush and Obama administrations?

The study seeks to answer its research question by using the rational choice approach. This approach explains that foreign policy does not change because of change of leadership. Therefore, this approach is suitable to study the research question.

The study reached several points of results, the most important of which are as follows: there is continuity within US foreign policy toward the Gulf countries under the two Bush and Obama administrations. Despite the difference of mechanisms of implementing this foreign policy under both administrations, the objectives of the US foreign policy are still constant and continuous. For example, although the events of September led to the occurrence of tensions between the USA and the Gulf region, the repercussions of the events of September were ostensible where the effects were confined to a change in tactical objectives. Also, successive American administrations have recognized the USA’s enduring and salient interests in the Gulf region.

The region is important as a source of US energy supplies as a strategic military base of operations and also as a site of US foreign policy influence through relationship with individual nations such as Saudi Arabia and the smaller states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

This paper adds to the existing literature which charts the effects of US foreign policy on the Gulf region.