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While existing literature extensively explores manufacturing firms expanding into services, little is known about the modes of servitisation, the means by which they carry it out. This paper concentrates on acquisitions as a mode of servitisation. Post-acquisition integration is when the potential of an acquisition is realised. The paper therefore aims to categorise types of integrations following the acquisition of servitised firms and discusses their consequences for servitisation.

The empirical part of the paper is based on two case studies, each involving the acquisition of servitised firms. Both acquirers changed their integration approach over time.

The paper conceptualises three types of integrations: rhetorical, insulated and transformative integrations, indicating whether and how the acquirer becomes servitised following the integration. These highlight the analysis of integration based on business models and customer orientation in relation to servitisation.

This paper contributes to research on servitisation by emphasising acquisitions as a mode of servitisation and conceptualising three integration types related to business models and customer orientations. Furthermore, the paper highlights how an acquirer's servitisation leads to new offerings targeting new customers, as opposed to strengthening existing relationships.

This paper aims to empirically investigate how knowledge coordination is carried out within and across expert teams in the outsourcing service desk context from the standpoint of the information and communication technologies (ICT) provider.

The authors draw on an embedded case study to unravel the mechanisms used by expert teams to achieve knowledge coordination. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and document analysis over eight months.

Four groups of coordination mechanisms were found according to their nature and role in helping MESA achieve its organizational goals. The authors also identified how this set of mechanisms responds to the task-resource dependency and how it evolves over time to provide reliable ICT services. Furthermore, the analysis of four knowledge coordination dimensions inside each group uncovers the complexity of coordination in the studied context, with the “who” dimension being predominant across the groups. The analysis further reveals that the content (what) and mode of coordination (how) of each group respond to elements in the knowledge coordination process relevant for the different stages of the ICT service delivery process.

The case study addresses how people in outsourced services coordinate their knowledge to manage the interdependencies among the involved organizations and thus, achieving their goals. This study extends previous research that had analyzed the consequences of knowledge coordination for providers and customers by delving into the mechanisms used in this process from the provider’s point of view.

We studied the relationship between job engagement and systematic problem solving (SPS) among shop-floor employees and how lean production (LP) and Internet of Things (IoT) systems moderate this relationship.

We collected data from a sample of 440 shop floor workers in 101 manufacturing work units across 33 plants. Because our data is nested, we employed a series of multilevel regression models to test the hypotheses. The application of IoT systems within work units was evaluated by our research team through direct observations from on-site visits.

Our findings indicate a positive association between job engagement and SPS. Additionally, we found that the adoption of lean bundles positively moderates this relationship, while, surprisingly, the adoption of IoT systems negatively moderates this relationship. Interestingly, we found that, when the adoption of IoT systems is complemented by a lean management system, workers tend to experience a higher effect on the SPS of their engagement.

One limitation of this research is the reliance on the self-reported data collected from both workers (job engagement, SPS and control variables) and supervisors (lean bundles). Furthermore, our study was conducted in a specific country, Italy, which might have limitations on the generalizability of the results since cross-cultural differences in job engagement and SPS have been documented.

Our findings highlight that employees’ strong engagement in SPS behaviors is shaped by the managerial and technological systems implemented on the shop floor. Specifically, we point out that implementing IoT systems without the appropriate managerial practices can pose challenges to fostering employee engagement and SPS.

This paper provides new insights on how lean and new technologies contribute to the development of learning-to-learn capabilities at the individual level by empirically analyzing the moderating effects of IoT systems and LP on the relationship between job engagement and SPS.

We applied a true-experimental randomized control posttest design to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to compare the effects of the AR and traditional board games on students’ SDG learning achievements.

We applied a true-experimental randomized control posttest design to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to compare the effects of AR and traditional board games on students' SDG learning achievements.

Our analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the effects of AR and traditional board games on the students' cognitive outcomes differed significantly, indicating the importance of providing a situated learning environment in SDG education. Moreover, the students perceived that the incorporation of the AR game into SDG learning improved their learning effectiveness – including both cognitive and affective dimensions – thus confirming its educational value and potential in SDG learning.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the effectiveness of different learning tools (AR and traditional board games) and to evaluate the importance of providing a situated learning environment through a true-experimental randomized control posttest design.

Drawing upon the theory of communication visibility, this research intends to investigate the direct effect of enterprise social media (ESM) usage on team members’ knowledge creation capability (KCC) and the mediating effects of psychological safety and team identification. In addition, it aims to untangle how the efficacy of ESM usage varies between pre- and post-COVID-19 periods.

Using two-wave survey data from 240 members nested within 60 teams, this study utilizes a multilevel approach to test the proposed hypotheses.

We discover that ESM usage enhances team members’ KCC. More importantly, the results show that psychological safety and team identification mediate the ESM–KCC linkage. Interestingly, we further find that the impacts of ESM usage on team members’ KCC, psychological safety, and team identification are stronger in the pre-COVID-19 period than those in the post-COVID-19 period.

This research sheds light on the ESM literature by unraveling the mechanisms of psychological safety and team identification underlying the linkage between ESM usage and team members’ KCC. Moreover, it advances our understanding of the differential efficacy of ESM usage in pre- and post-COVID-19 periods.

In this paper, the authors examine auditor upward feedback, which provides a unique opportunity for staff auditors to exercise their voice within an audit firm. Upward feedback can improve employee perceptions of fairness and justice while mitigating feelings of burnout and turnover intentions, thus enhancing audit quality. However, it is unclear which circumstances improve the likelihood that auditors will use their voice and give feedback to superiors. The purpose of this study is to investigate contextual factors that impact the likelihood that auditors will provide upward feedback.

Using a 2 × 2 + 2 experiment with staff auditors, the authors test the likelihood of giving feedback when presented with different feedback systems (electronic anonymous, face-to-face or no opportunity) and experiences with managers (favorable or unfavorable).

The authors find that, while feedback type alone does not change the likelihood of auditors providing upward feedback, auditors are more likely to provide feedback after a favorable manager experience than an unfavorable one. The likelihood of providing feedback after an unfavorable experience is higher, however, when the feedback type is electronic and anonymous as opposed to face-to-face. Additional analyses illustrate strong relationships between manager experience, feedback type and procedural justice, which significantly influence the turnover intentions of staff auditors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors are the first to examine the value of subordinates’ upward feedback on firm outcomes, including burnout and turnover intention.

The Covid-19 pandemic generated significant changes in the operating methods of hospital logistics departments. The objective of this research is to understand how these changes took place, what collaboration mechanisms were developed with clinical authorities and, to what extent, logistics and clinical care activities should be decoupled to maximize each area's contribution?

The case study is selected to investigate practices implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in hospitals in Canada. The pandemic presented an opportunity to contrast practices implemented in response to this crisis with those historically used in this environment.

The strategy of decoupling logistical tasks of an operational nature from clinical activities is well-founded and helps free clinical staff from tasks for which they are not trained. However, the decoupling of operational tasks should be combined with an integration of the clinical information flow to the logistics hub players. With this clinical information, the logistics hub can generate its full potential enabling better inventory management decisions to be made.

The concept of decoupling is studied to identify configurations that offer the best benefits for clinical staff.

Various health systems are challenged by a multifaceted crisis of increased service demand and workforce shortages. The effects are devastating and may end up in decreased access to care, poor quality of patient care and extreme demands on the workforce. The introduction of the physician assistant (PA) profession provided an avenue to address such challenges in several countries. In Germany, the integration of PAs has been proceeding slowly.

To understand the integration of the profession in Germany, we conducted 15 expert interviews to reveal how the PA profession is perceived among healthcare experts as well as the barriers and facilitators of integration in inpatient care.

Our results highlight a generally positive perception of PAs, particularly in terms of workload relief and bridging the gap between healthcare professionals. Nonetheless, barriers include resistance from healthcare workers unfamiliar with the PA role, while workforce shortages and collaborative teamwork facilitate integration.

These findings lay the groundwork for potential integration-enhancing strategies in Germany.

In an era where complex technological advances increasingly govern service delivery, it is incumbent on service firms to pioneer innovative strategies to sustain customer engagement and cultivate loyalty. This conceptual paper examines the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of online customer communities, with a particular focus on its creation, management and enhancement facets. The authors explore how AI can revolutionize the dynamics of customer interaction, feedback mechanisms and overall engagement within the service industry.

This conceptual paper draws from marketing and management literature focusing on customer communities and AI in service and customer engagement contexts with a robust future research agenda.

A classification of online customer community engagement is provided along with a conceptual framework to guide our understanding of the integration of AI into online customer communities.

This exploration underscores the imperative for service firms to embrace AI-driven approaches to online customer community management, not only as a means to optimize their operations but as a vital strategy to stay competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape. This paper examines the novel combination of AI with online customer communities and provides the framework in the form of an input-process-output (IPO) model for future research into this integration.