Information technology-enabled explorative learning and competitive performance in industrial service SMEs: a configurational analysis

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>As purveyors of knowledge-based and high value-added services to the manufacturing sector, industrial service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop the information technology (IT) capabilities that, in combination with other non-IT capabilities, enable their capacity for organizational learning (OL) and for explorative learning in particular. In this context, this study aims to identify the different causal configurations that account for the nonlinear complex interplay of IT capabilities for exploration and strategic capabilities for explorative learning as they affect these firms’ competitive performance.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>Survey data obtained from 92 industrial service SMEs were analyzed with a configurational approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>As it allows for equifinality, the fsQCA analysis identified two sets of causal configurations that characterize the sampled firms’ explorative learning capability as it relates to competitive performance. In the first set, two configurations were equally associated with high innovation performance, whereas in the second set, four configurations were equally associated with high productivity.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>By viewing explorative learning as a dynamic capability that is enabled by the firm’s IT and strategic capabilities, the study contributes to OL theory by providing a more concrete or “operational” grounding, which allows for a greater practical applicability of this theory. By taking both the configurational and capability-based views of the OL-IT-performance causal framework, the authors provide an empirical basis for unraveling, explaining and understanding the complex non-linear relationships embedded within this framework.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Chief Digital Officer and Organizational Creativity Toward Digitalization

“…Crupi et al [11] highlighted the impact of digitization and DT to an organization of a larger size and its effects on processes, routines, capabilities, and organizational structure. Raymond et al [47] asserted that DT is providing a competitive advantage to an SME in comparison to larger organizational entities given the slower adoption rates due to larger organizational structures, size of operations, and capacity to deliver change with minimum disruption. On the other hand, for this competitive advantage to be achieved the need for SME tailored planning is essential to encompass gaps in capacity and skills required to drive the transformation process.…”

A Complex Adaptive Systems View of Digital Ecodynamics for Business Performance among Manufacturing SMEs

“…The research variables' reliability and descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. Note that IT capabilities for innovation, flexibility, and integration are 'index' rather than 'scale' measures [53]. An index variable tends to follow a Poisson-type rather than a normal distribution, that is, to be right-skewed if the mean is small.…”

“…The major analytical contribution of fsQCA resides in its ability to evaluate relations between configurations (that is, combinations of conditions) and the outcome(s) [40,55]. Sufficiency analysis entails such evaluation and it is usually the second step in fsQCA analysis [53]. Table 3 shows the results of the fsQCA analysis with the causal configurations for the presence and absence (indicated by '~') of high business performance 3 .…”

AlphaVC: A Reinforcement Learning-based Venture Capital Investment Strategy

“…Paradoxically, other researchers have said that SMEs are still understudied, as well as their capabilities are limited and inadequate to carry out their DT (Li et al, 2018), especially during a major crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic (Mandviwalla & Flanagan, 2021). However, there is a certain consensus regarding the need for researchers to better understand the nonlinear interplay of dynamic IT capabilities and operational IT capabilities, particularly in the face of competitive issues (Raymond et al, 2020).…”

“…Highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic, IT capabilities -be they 'dynamic' or not -are thus more than ever considered essential to business activities at both to operational and strategic levels (Helfat et al, 2007). Consequently, while DT is now considered as a 2 nd -order 'dynamic' capability, other key elements and organizational mechanisms are represented by 1 st -order 'dynamic' IT capabilities as well as 'operational' IT capabilities (Ortiz de Guinea Raymond et al, 2020). Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how these IT capabilities affect (or not) managerial practices and other organizational mechanisms that also support strategic business shifts (Mikalef & Pateli, 2017;Pelletier et al, 2021).…”