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The integration of industry 4.0 has become a priority for many organizations. However, not all organizations are suitable and capable of implementing industry 4.0 because it requires a dynamic and flexible implementation strategy. The implementation of industry 4.0 often involves overcoming several tensions between internal and external stakeholders. This paper aims to explore the paradoxical tensions that arise for health-care organizations when integrating industry 4.0. Moreover, it discusses how a paradox lens can support the conceptualization and proposes techniques for handling tensions during the integration of industry 4.0.

This qualitative and in-depth study draws upon 32 semi-structured interviews. The empirical case concerns how two health-care organizations handle paradoxical tensions during the integration of industry 4.0.

The exploration resulted in six recurring technology tensions: technology invention (modularized design vs. flexible design), technology collaboration (automation vs. human augmentation), technology-driven patient experience (control vs. autonomy), technology uncertainty (short-term experimentation vs. long-term planning), technology invention and diffusion through collaborative efforts among stakeholders (selective vs. intensive collaboration) and technological innovation (market maintenance vs. disruption).

A paradox theory-informed conceptual model is proposed for how to handle tensions during the integration of industry 4.0. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to introduce paradox theory for quality management, including lean and Six Sigma.

From the early 1980s to the late 1990s overall productivity rates did not reflect the rising investment in information and computer technology (ICT). This paradox, the productivity paradox, which was widely discussed among economists may well turn out to be mainly a mirage once the assumption is excluded that investment has a short‐run effect on productivity. The apparent productivity paradox seems to be rooted in an ICT infrastructure that is inadequate and in an increase in income disparities that thwart the realization of economies of scale.

The aim of this paper is to reveal an information dynamic in which technology or dead labour is substituted for living mental labour.

A comparative historical review of technologies for reproducing written utterances and their relation to living labour.

A dynamic for mental labour, similar to that for physical labour, is isolated.

The productivity paradox, a central concern of the information systems literature, is dissolved.

The paper is relevant to both information science and information systems. Understanding an information dynamic can enable intervention in that dynamic.

Although we observe a general optimism concerning IT’s potential for creating suitable competitive advantages, there exists a lack of empirical support for the positive economic impact of IT on businesses. This is denoted as the productivity paradox of IT. We argue that in situations of hypercompetition, using conventional productivity measures as the only performance indicator would be inadequate when studying the impact IT has. Furthermore, investing in IT does not ensure its proper implementation. Consequently there is a need to consider what companies are using IT for and its consequences for innovation and a variety of performance measures. In a study of 200 firms within the Norwegian IT sector, we found that focusing on the use of IT might be a promising route for studying the relationship between IT and successful innovations, and between IT and performance. We also found a number of trade‐offs between the various performance measures and between successful innovations and performance. Although we were able to find positive effects of IT we argue in favour of developing an information and a knowledge strategy prior to developing an IT strategy

The relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and productivity has been widely discussed in the past two decades, but little understood. Since the early 1970s productivity growth in almost all of the world economies has slowed, while expenditure on ICT has risen. This raises the so‐called “productivity paradox” with some economists concluding that there is no relationship between spending on ICT and productivity. The study examines this relationship with time series tools in an attempt to identify whether there is a causal relationship in either direction, or whether there is a third factor affecting both ICT growth and productivity growth. Using the Granger causality procedure applied to Portuguese data from the period 1980‐2000, the paper attempts to understand better the paradox in order to recommend to managers how they might make better‐informed and more effective decisions about ICT investments.

The purpose of this paper is to understand technology diffusion in the banking sector in India by analyzing ATM (automatic teller machine) technology and its replacement of the teller (labor). ATMs are fast emerging as an important IT investment for a bank in India. Hence, in this paper the authors use the ATM as a proxy for capital and the teller as a proxy for labor.

The debate on the “IT paradox” is the motivation for this paper. The constant elasticity of substitution (CES) model is used, as the degree of substitution can be estimated. The degree of substitutability of one form of input for another namely, ATM (capital) for teller (labor), is discussed by developing an appropriate model to understand the same.

The rapid diffusion of the ATM was clearly large from 1998, nine years after it was first adopted. This was also a time when the number of tellers was falling and the wage bill for tellers increasing. The CES production function model used in this paper is clearly a good predictor of the data compared with the other cases. The estimate shows that the degree of substitutability of the teller by the ATM is high. However, the ATM is not a perfect substitute. By running counterfactual experiments, it can be concluded that both a fall in the price of ATMs and an increase in the wage bill for tellers contributed to the diffusion of the ATM.

The excess labor in public sector banks needs to be redeployed rapidly, or staff need to be trained in other functions as do private banks, so that they do not become redundant as technology diffuses.

The paper is original in its data, its model building and testing in the banking sector.

The twenty‐first century is knocking on our doors, but do we know how to greet it? We know it is there waiting for us to let it in, but what are we likely to face when we open our institutional doors? What opportunities, uncertainties, or threats will it bring? Will we recognize the twenty‐first century when we see it, or might we confuse it with something seen before? Might we mistake an issue we should be prepared to deal with in the next millennium for a controversy of no significance? For government agencies the calendar is not much help. For public administrators the twenty‐first century is more than just a date. It is a state of affairs, a set of behaviour patterns, opportunities to be explored and risks to be avoided. Confronting the twenty‐first century means emerging from a relatively certain past to confront an uncertain future.

In this study, the authors aim to address the following two research questions: (1) How do technology innovation paradoxes manifest themselves in technological changes? (2) How do incumbent firms manage technology innovation paradoxes through multi-level organizational ambidexterity? To do so, the authors examine technology innovation in cloud computing, which has taken shape and brought about changes to the information technology industry. Specifically, the authors examine how a traditional software company, China Standard Software Co., Ltd. (CS2C), successfully navigated the technological transition to cloud computing from its existing operating systems business by managing innovation paradoxes through multi-level ambidexterity capabilities.

This study examines a single exploratory case and conducts an in-depth analysis of how technology innovation paradoxes manifest themselves in technological changes and how incumbent firms manage technology innovation paradoxes through multi-level organizational ambidexterity. The data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously through three phases. In Phase 1, one of the authors who had worked at CS2C for many years enabled the authors to obtain access to the company. The data analysis during this phase provided the authors with the history and current situation of CS2C, enabling them to understand the external circumstances, such as particular historical period, and internal conditions, such as cultural and technological changes, that would be relevant throughout the course of their study. It also helped the authors identify organizational ambidexterity capability as the guiding theoretical concept for their research. In Phase 2, the authors engaged in site visits and conducted detailed interviews with employees working at CS2C. In Phase 3, most of the data analysis was conducted. When the interview data were not sufficient to support the theoretical analysis, additional data were collected via phone calls and emails, to assure data-theory-model alignment.

The authors’ findings show that technology innovation paradoxes manifest themselves as contradictory relationships and mutual support relationships between exploitative and exploratory innovation. In addition, the authors identify three integration mechanisms as key to multi-level organizational ambidexterity capabilities in managing technology innovation paradoxes in technological changes.

Three important theoretical implications can be drawn from our case analysis. First, this research contributes to the knowledge of innovation paradoxes during technological changes. Second, this research provides a model of multi-level organizational ambidexterity capability in technological changes. Third, this research proposes three integration mechanisms driven by three types of ambidexterity capability at different organizational levels.

The paper aims to contribute to ongoing research which emphasises the expanding role of information systems and information technology (IS/IT) as an enhancer of service delivery.

In order to explore the practical utilisation of IS/IT in the enhancement of service delivery, a case study was adopted as the preferred research methodology. The case focused on one of the biggest telecommunications IS/IT service providers in the UK.

The study shows that the delivery of service experiences to customers by firms operating in service provider‐intensive environments is challenged by the multi‐dimensional nature of service.

The interest lies in the question of the “true” role of IS/IT in service delivery. In particular, the paper explores key thematic elements that underlie enhanced IS/IT delivery.

Exploration of the utilisation of IS/IT to enhance service delivery is framed within extant services science and service research literature.

The purpose of this paper is to engage in a comprehensive review of the research on information technology (IT)-mediated international market-entry alliances.

This paper provides a theory-informed conceptual framework of IT-enabled cross-border interfirm relationships and performance outcomes. It integrates perspectives of resource-based view (RBV) and transaction cost economics (TCE) to argue that the establishment of interfirm IT capabilities enhances the marketing performance of the foreign partner in the host location by improving interfirm relationship governance. Furthermore, IT-related risks and contextual restrictions are identified as important moderators.

Conceptualisations of IT capabilities, IT-enhanced interfirm governance, and IT-led marketing performance improvement are suggested. Drawing on RBV and TCE, IT resources, related human resources, and IT integration between partner firms in combination enhances the ability of firms to manage the relationship more effectively through shared control, interfirm coordination, cross-firm formalisation, and hybrid centralisation. These benefits then bring about better upstream and downstream marketing performance in the host location. Additionally, IT capabilities help to mitigate possible contextual limitations and risks.

The paper offers a number of theory- and literature-informed research propositions which can be empirically tested in future studies.

Top managers of firms currently in or planning to enter international alliances for market entry should carefully consider effective development of interfirm IT capabilities in terms of readiness of hardware and software, human resources, and organisational resources.

The paper provides an integrated framework and propositions which contribute to limited understanding and appreciation of IT value in international market-entry alliances.