Orchestration mechanisms in sustainability-oriented innovation: a meta-organization perspective

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how orchestration mechanisms characterizing meta-organizations can support sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) leveraged by digital transition. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a qualitative approach. The authors collected qualitative data from 41 in-depth interviews with key informants, participatory longitudinal observations and secondary data analysis related to a digital innovation hub (DIH) and its network. Findings The findings reveal how meta-organizations, such as DIHs, advance SOI – considering the potentialities of digital technologies – through four orchestration mechanisms: collaboration platform setup, SOI resource arrangement, SOI process enablement and SOI scale-up. Each mechanism is founded on recurrent SOI practices identified as aligning, assembling and progressing, and each is characterized by specific activities that depend on meta-organizations’ evolutionary purposes related to the stages of the creation process. The activation of mechanisms concerns a process outlining three sequential evolutionary trajectories: for assessing and regulating interaction, for promoting and coordinating collective action and for creating a collective identity. Originality/value This study contributes to meta-organization and orchestration research oriented toward SOI and leveraged by the digital transition, and considers the distinctive orchestration mechanisms and practices required to support SOI leveraged by the digital transition. Differently from previous research on orchestration and meta-organizations, this study considers the time perspective, and thus, the sequentiality of mechanisms (evolutionary trajectories) to achieve the purposes characterizing the stages of meta-organizations’ creation process.