The widespread implementation and adoption of digital technologies by organizations has given rise to a massive transformation with the potential to affect many organizations’ internal operations and processes. This transformation affects different levels and steps of output creation in companies, which eventually triggers changes in their organizational structures. This article develops an integrated picture on how digital transformation affects organization design by classifying and analyzing the effect on the process of output creation in firms. Based on this picture, it develops and elaborates on potential opportunities and challenges for companies resulting from digital transformation. Finally, it offers recommendations and decisions rules for dealing with these issues.

Management practices explain an important part of the heterogeneity in firm productivity, but the literature has largely focused on manufacturing, while leaving out research in the industrial setting. A key managerial practice in industrial research projects is the use of autonomy (through the delegation of decision rights). Our paper clarifies the drivers and the effects of autonomy in settings where other managerial instruments are less effective. We discuss that in industrial research projects, autonomy is set for efficiency reasons—autonomy allows researchers to make more competent decisions about a specific problem—as well as for motivational considerations—autonomy motivates researchers to exert greater effort. We also argue that project-relevant capital—the resources that enhance the productivity of researchers on a given project—is a key driver of autonomy. We theorize that the efficiency and motivational channels have opposite implications for the relationship between project-relevant capital and autonomy and find that, empirically, this relationship is U-shaped, which is suggestive evidence of the presence of both channels.

Research Summary We investigate the effects of patent disclosure on corporate venture capital (CVC) investments in technology startups. Toward this end, we focus on the passage of the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA), which mandated public disclosure of patent applications. Theoretically, technology disclosure enables CVCs to better evaluate startups and thus, could increase the likelihood of investment relations. Conversely, such disclosure may already satisfy the technology‐acquisition objectives of CVCs, reducing CVCs willingness to form an investment relation after disclosure. Our empirical analysis finds that patent disclosure through AIPA increased the likelihood of receiving CVC investments for startups—specifically in industries where patents have higher information significance. We provide evidence that the observed pattern is mainly driven by a reduction of information constraints regarding startups with patent applications. Managerial Summary Receiving corporate venture capital (CVC) funding is an important success factor for technology startups. Would disclosure of a startup's innovation increase or decrease its chance of receiving CVC funding? On the one hand, disclosure by startups would reduce uncertainty and search costs for CVC investors, which could increase the chance of CVC funding. On the other hand, such a disclosure would reveal the startups' technology to the corporations, which would in turn reduce corporate incentive to use funding as a window to the startup's technology. Thus, disclosure could also reduce the chance of CVC funding of startups. In this paper, we study the above issue by examining the case of the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA), which mandated public disclosure of patent applications. Our results suggest that innovation disclosure significantly improves the likelihood of CVC funding of startups.

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