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The paper explores coordination practices in digital–physical product development and their consequences for companies traditionally relying on physical product development.

Using an embedded case study design, the paper reports four action research initiatives addressing the digital–physical coordination challenges encountered by a leading B2C company.

Effective coordination of digital–physical product development, firstly, involves standardization of process, output and skills to accommodate the stability needed for efficient physical product development and manufacturing. Secondly, it involves agile coordination events, such as Scrum ceremonies and PI planning, to facilitate the mutual adjustment needed to allow agility and the differences between digital and physical product development to be continuously and successfully negotiated.

The paper illustrates a research model with case evidence and suggests tentative theory in the form of propositions. Future research should explore coordination problems and solutions in different digital–physical project types and contexts.

Coordination practices for digital–physical product development are presented and analyzed, providing inspiration for companies.

The paper is the first to explore coordination practices within the emerging field of digital–physical product development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how digital and physical product development can be successfully coordinated and which new product development and contextual practices are suitable for the combined digital-physical product development process.

The paper is based on a multiple-case study within one company with three digital-physical product development projects as the units of analysis. The data collection and analysis are guided by an existing research model. The case study is used deductively to illustrate the model.

When combining digital and physical development processes, one or both need to change. This may lead to sub-optimization of one or both of the processes but optimizes the combined digital-physical process. Various development and coordination practices as well as contextual measures must be put into place to improve fit to the digital-physical process characteristics and mixed materiality.

The paper illustrates the research model with case evidence and suggests tentative theory in the form of propositions. Further research needs to explore the impact of the practices and contextual measures proposed.

This research proposes a range of conditions facilitating the successful development of digital-physical products.

This paper is among the first to empirically explore the complex process of digital-physical product development. Taking a process perspective and focusing on organizational and managerial practices and the influence of context, organization theory is used as the theoretical lens.