Abstract
Sourcing of external digital solution has become an important strategy incumbent firms are using to accelerate their digital transformation. However, external knowledge and technology sourcing is a complex, multi-phase process that requires exchanging various kinds of knowledge across cognitive, technological and organizational boundaries. Using a longitudinal in-depth qualitative analysis of 15 early-stage pilot projects between startups offering digital solutions and electric utilities seeking to adopt them as empirical setting, we develop a framework of external digital technology sourcing. This framework explicates how and why knowledge exchange patterns differ given a derived set of digital technology integration processes - positioned along the digital technology stack. We show that service enablement at the data-application interface triggers a parallel knowledge iteration pattern, system harmonization at the data-network interface triggers a concurrent knowledge co-creation pattern and assuring hardware efficacy at the network-device interface triggers a sequential knowledge validation pattern. We discuss contributions to the literature on digital innovation and external knowledge sourcing.
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