Incumbent Organizations Research Articles

Incumbent organisations shaping emerging technological fields: cases of solar photovoltaic and electric vehicle charging

ABSTRACT We explore how large incumbent organisations shape emerging technological fields while establishing a position and business opportunities for themselves during technological shifts. We draw from innovation studies that increasingly emphasise the ability of incumbent organisations to survive technological transformations and studies on emerging technological fields to identify ways in which incumbent organisations shape novel fields during their emergence. Through longitudinal case studies of two emerging fields, we examine how incumbents shape the emerging technological fields of solar energy and electric vehicles. We discuss the interlinked and cumulative business and discursive activities utilized by the incumbents as well as the mechanism through which they influence the legitimacy, expectations and field boundaries of the emerging technological fields. Our study draws attention to the fact that incumbents enter emerging fields at an earlier stage and in more diverse ways than has previously been noted.

Platforms, Open/User Innovation, and Ecosystems: A Strategic Leadership Perspective

Platform, open/user innovation, and ecosystem strategies embrace and enable interactions with external entities. Firms pursuing these approaches conduct business and interact with environments differently than those pursuing traditional closed strategies. This paper considers these strategies together highlighting similarities and differences between platform, open/user innovation, and ecosystem strategies. We focus on managerial and organizational challenges for organizations pursuing these strategies and identify four institutional logic shifts associated with these strategic transitions: 1) increasing external focus, 2) moving to greater openness, 3) focusing on enabling interactions, and 4) adopting interaction-centric metrics. As mature incumbent organizations adopt these strategies, there may be tensions and multiple conflicting institutional logics. Additionally, we consider four strategic leadership topics and how they relate to platform, open/user innovation, and ecosystem strategies: 1) executive orientation and experience, 2) top management teams, 3) board-management relations, and 4) executive compensation. We discuss theoretical implications, and consider future directions and research opportunities.

Varied Incumbent Behaviors and Mobilization for New Organizational Forms: The Rise of Triple-Bottom Line Business amid Both Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility

This study seeks to understand the recent emergence of new organizational forms for social enterprise in relation to established corporations’ seemingly contradictory actions: increased engagement in corporate social responsibility, coupled with persistent practices overtly geared towards profit maximization. Advancing the literature on social movements and new form emergence, we hypothesize that this coexistence of conflicting incumbent actions motivates smaller companies specializing in social and environmental sustainability to join the identity movement against shareholder-centered governance through multiple routes. These companies join the new forms in response to the problems of capitalism through an oppositional identity politics, and also to the reforms of capitalism through an authenticity politics to re-establish their differentiation from the mainstreaming of CSR. We find support for this argument from analyses of the initial diffusion of Certified B Corporations and the motives behind it. Together these findings illuminate the role of incumbent organizations in the process of new form emergence and the multiple motivations underlying identity movements.

Tethered to work: A family systems approach linking mobile device use to turnover intentions.

We examined the use of a mobile device for work during family time (mWork) to determine the role that it plays in employee turnover intentions. Using a sample of 344 job incumbents and their spouses, we propose a family systems model of turnover and examine 2 paths through which we expect mWork to relate to turnover intentions: the job incumbent and the spouse. From the job incumbent, we found that the job incumbent's mWork associated with greater work-to-family conflict and burnout, and lower organizational commitment. From the spouse, we found that incumbent mWork and greater work-to-family conflict associated with increased resentment by the spouse and lower spousal commitment to the job incumbent's organization. Both of these paths played a role in predicting job incumbent turnover intentions. We discuss implications and opportunities for future research on mWork for integrating work and family into employee turnover intentions.

A Cognitive Account Of Incumbent Responses To Disruptive Innovation

Research has shown that managerial cognition and cognitive frames play a prominent role in shaping organizational strategy under conditions of market uncertainty and ambiguity. While this work often has implications for understanding incumbent responses to disruptive innovation, relatively few attempts have been made to apply a cognitive lens directly to cases of disruptive innovation. Where a cognitive approach has been applied, it has often incorporated binary or dichotomous understandings of cognitive framing: often involving an opportunity/threat heuristic Recent work has begun to suggest that cognitive positions held by organizational members can incorporate multi- dimensional and non-binary cognitive frames. This paper explores the cognitive processes involved in incumbent organizations following the emergence of a disruptive innovation. We conduct an in-depth case study of the response of Aviva plc. to a disruptive innovation - the rise of general insurance aggregator sites between 2005 and 2007 -t...

Toward Organizational Pluralism: Institutional Intrapreneurship in Integrative Medicine

A critical stage in change toward institutional pluralism occurs when incumbent organizations must begin to integrate diverse logics in their operations. The required institutional work inside organizations at that stage—institutional intrapreneurship—involves distinctive challenges. Incumbent logics are entrenched in organizational routines, status orders, policies, and structures that hamper change and trigger resistance. We used qualitative data from two integrative medicine (IM) programs inside large healthcare organizations to understand how institutional intrapreneurs work to integrate the IM logic in these highly institutionalized organizations. We found that intrapreneurs use opportunistic tactics to create and strengthen organizational free spaces aligned with the new logic, and then leverage the capacity that is developed to extend elements of the new logic into the broader organization. This study suggests that a better understanding of the organizational context helps explain the fate of early-stage efforts toward institutional change.

Imprinting and Inertia Density Delay Revisited

The study builds on previous research in the domain of organizational ecology and derives hypotheses about delayed effects of the competitive intensity at the time of founding of a new organization on mortality rates. It is argued that on the one hand, old incumbent organizations with more industry experience exert more competitive pressure than younger ones. On the other hand, a situation at founding where incumbents have to spread their competitive efforts among different entry cohorts should be favorable for new organizations. Data on four populations of motorcycle producers in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Australia are used to test these predictions. Empirical results provide support for the hypotheses in the first three populations. Conflicting results for Australia might be explained with the special evolution of the industry there. As it is known, estimated effects of the density at founding in various populations usually can explain only part of the observed declines of the number of organizations after a peak (Carroll and Hannan, 2000). However, the implemented measures in this study yield lager effects than the estimated classical density delay effect alone in three of the populations. Hence, the study extends the existing theory helping to explain generally observable evolutionary patterns more fully. Furthermore, it provides important theoretical insights in the historical path-dependency of the evolution of industries and in firm survival.

Public Interest in the Regulation of Competition: Evidence from Wholesale Internet Access Consultations in Canada

Abstract How do private interests try to shape public interest competition regulations? Focusing on debates about the design of wholesale Internet access obligations, the authors employ Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to evaluate a multi-stakeholder policymaking process in Canada. Using NLP, they analyze 40 formal interventions in the CRTC's 2013–551 review of its wholesale broadband policy. They classify major interest groups, map key concepts, and quantify asymmetries in stakeholders’ influence. They conclude that by reducing the costs of regulatory participation, deploying NLP technologies can help offset the advantages large incumbent organizations already have in shaping law and policy.

Public Interest in the Regulation of Competition: Evidence from Wholesale Internet Access Consultations in Canada

Abstract How do private interests try to shape public interest competition regulations? Focusing on debates about the design of wholesale Internet access obligations, the authors employ Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to evaluate a multi-stakeholder policymaking process in Canada. Using NLP, they analyze 40 formal interventions in the CRTC's 2013–551 review of its wholesale broadband policy. They classify major interest groups, map key concepts, and quantify asymmetries in stakeholders’ influence. They conclude that by reducing the costs of regulatory participation, deploying NLP technologies can help offset the advantages large incumbent organizations already have in shaping law and policy.

Long tails in the tourism industry: towards knowledge intensive service suppliers

This paper analyses the effects of the internet on the organisations and the markets in the tourism industry. It enlightens its deepening impact on incumbent organisations and markets from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 though the analysis of the dynamics of the long tail, i.e., of the distribution of activities in tourism. Innovation is gone from exploitation to exploration of the long tail, towards the emergence of non-profit or for-profit knowledge intensive service suppliers (KISS) allowing 'prosumers' to find solutions to run themselves their activities, through users generated resources. The growing autonomy of the tail from the head of distribution in the tourism industry emerges with the development of a platform economy, i.e., of global innovative market places inside the long tail itself.

Incumbent organisations engaging to field-changing innovations: case of PV and EV charging

We explore how large incumbent organisations, which dominate in the mature markets, can bring new controversial business solutions based on potentially radical novel technologies. We contrast the t...

Flexing Work Boundaries: The Spillover and Crossover of Workplace Support

Using boundary theory and conservation of resources theory, we examined how job incumbents’ perceptions of supervisor instrumental support and organizational segmentation support influence outcomes for both the incumbent and the spouse. First, we examined how supervisor instrumental support and organizational segmentation support shape incumbents’ perceived ability to flex work boundaries and thus affect their experience of family functioning and their organizational commitment. Second, we examine the effects of supervisor instrumental support and organizational segmentation support on spousal martial satisfaction and the spouse's commitment to the incumbent's employing organization as mediated through boundary flexibility and the spouse's perception of successful boundary management by the incumbent. Using a matched set of 503 subordinates and their spouses, this study found that both supervisor instrumental support and organizational segmentation support contribute to work boundary flexibility. Further, for the incumbent, family functioning and organizational commitment were enhanced through work boundary flexibility, whereas for the spouse, marital satisfaction and commitment to the incumbent's organization were enhanced through both incumbent work boundary flexibility and the spouse's perception of successful boundary management by the incumbent. We discuss the study's implications for theory, research, and practice while suggesting new research directions.

INNOVATION APPROACHES FOR OLD PRODUCTS REVITALISATION AFTER TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY REVERSE

Incumbent companies sometimes innovate and attempt to revitalise old technology-based products, in decline after technological change, by improvements of their technical performance and/or extensions of their lifetime into the market. The name of this innovation approach is "sailing ship effect," the acceleration of innovation in the old technology in response to the threat from the new. However, in theory firms could achieve revitalisation even by an alternative innovation approach based on the development of completely new products. The article reports an illustrative case study: the innovation approach of some of the main incumbent organisations in photography industry after the emergence of digital cameras. In this case, incumbent companies developed and launched film scanners, new technology-based products aimed at supporting users of old analog cameras after the rise of digital imaging. The article contributes to the extant literature about innovation approaches for old products' revitalisation by analysing how established firms can achieve this goal with completely new technological products. The approach of technology reverse is proposed.

The Price of Admission: Deference in Overlapping Institutional Environments

Do overlapping institutional logics necessarily lead to upheaval and emergence of a new order? Or can organizations belonging to different worldviews coproduce and maintain the social structure? We examine these questions with the introduction of market finance organizations to coproduce French films. Drawing on symbolic interaction and institutional theories and qualitative and quantitative data, we develop and test theory on the role of deference as a means of coproduction among foreign and incumbent organizations in overlapping institutional environments. Foreign organizations are more likely to engage in deferent coproduction when their presentation needs, avoidance efforts, and local recognition are high. We argue that deference is a capital conversion mechanism that enables foreign organizations to gain social capital but with negative consequences for financial performance. Our analysis clarifies how deference enables actors to maintain their identity and the social structure and suggests extended scope for institutional and deference theories with implications for the effects of market capitalism in societies.

Organizational Aspects of Business Model Innovation: The Case of the European Postal Industry

Organizations are often challenged to find new ways of creating and capturing value to compete with new entrants and disruptive technologies. Several studies have addressed some of the organizational barriers that incumbents face when developing new business models, but our understanding of the organizational (re)design aspects inherent to business model innovation is still very incomplete. In this study, we investigate the organizational (re)design challenges for incumbent organizations in mature industries when they need to reinvent their business model in reaction to disruptive changes in their environment. Our empirical setting focuses on national postal operators in the European postal industry. Using an inductive case study we distinguish between two stages within business model innovation: namely, business model exploration and business model exploitation. Focusing on the former, our findings shed new light on the existence of four key organizational issues: (1) organizational conflicts for scarce ...

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship

According to the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, the context in which decision-making is derived can influence one’s determination to become an entrepreneur. In particular, a context that is rich in knowledge generates entrepreneurial opportunities from those ideas. By commercializing ideas that evolved from an incumbent organization via the creation of a new firm, the entrepreneur (human capital) not only serves as a conduit for the spillover of knowledge, but also for the ensuing innovative activity and enhanced economic performance through resource allocation. The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship brings together contemporary theories and thoughts of entrepreneurship with prevailing theories of economic growth, geography, and strategy and therefore explains not just why some people choose to become an entrepreneur, but also why this matters significantly for the economy and society.

The optimal vertical structure in the electricity industry when the incumbent has a cost advantage

This paper studies how the vertical structure of the electricity industry affects the social welfare when the incumbent has a cost advantage in generation relative to the entrants. The model consists of a generation sector and a transmission sector. In the generation sector the incumbent and entrants compete in a Cournot fashion taking as given the access charge to the transmission network set in advance by the regulator to maximize the social welfare. Two vertical structures, integration and separation, are considered. Under vertical separation the transmission network is established as an organization independent of every generator, whereas under vertical integration it is a part of the incumbent's organization. The optimal vertical structure is shown to depend on the number of entrants. If the number of entrants is smaller than a certain threshold, vertical separation is superior in welfare to vertical integration, and vice versa. This is because the choice of vertical structure produces a trade-off in the effects on competition promotion and production efficiency. If a break-even constraint is imposed in the transmission sector, however, vertical integration is shown to be always superior in welfare.

Challenging Communities: How Political Dynamics shape Organizational Responses to Competing Logics

This research combines institutional and social movement theory to explain how organizations respond to competing institutional logics. Using the Dutch financial service industry as empirical setting, this research shows that the industry’s dominant market logic is challenged by an emerging community logic, leading to institutional complexity for incumbent organizations. Empirical evidence depicts that the response strategies to these logics are dependent on the extent to which actors adhere to different institutional logics and that the weakened power of incumbents combined with powerful challengers increases the level of responsiveness. Furthermore, incumbent organizations altered their response strategies over time to respond to community logic demands, but these changes were dependent on the internal political dynamics of the organization. The findings redirect institutional research away from a focus on organizational response at a particular point in time towards examining how internal political dynamics influence the alteration of response strategies to competing logics.

Provider Diversity in the English NHS: A Study of Recent Developments in Four Local Health Economies

To assess the impact of provider diversity on quality and innovation in the English NHS by mapping the extent of diverse provider activity and identifying the differences in performance between Third Sector Organisations (TSOs), for-profit private enterprises, and incumbent organizations within the NHS, and the factors that affect the entry and growth of new providers. Case studies of four local health economies. Data included: semi-structured interviews with 48 managerial and clinical staff from NHS organizations and providers from the private and third sector; some documentary evidence; a focus group with service users; and routine data from the Care Quality Commission and Companies House. Data collection was mainly between November 2008 and November 2009. Involvement of diverse providers in the NHS is limited. Commissioners' local strategies influence degrees of diversity. Barriers to entry for TSOs include lack of economies of scale in the bidding process. Private providers have greater concern to improve patient pathways and patient experience, whereas TSOs deliver quality improvements by using a more holistic approach and a greater degree of community involvement. Entry of new providers drives NHS trusts to respond by making improvements. Information sharing diminishes as competition intensifies. There is scope to increase the participation of diverse providers in the NHS but care must be taken not to damage public accountability, overall productivity, equity and NHS providers (especially acute hospitals, which are likely to remain in the NHS) in the process.

Destabilization rights and restabilization politics: policy and political reactions to European Union healthcare services law

European Union (EU) patient mobility law creates destabilization rights: rights for citizens that would, if consistently applied, destabilize law, administration and finance for healthcare systems across the EU. This article focuses on the responses of the destabilized organizations and their efforts to restabilize their legal situation. We argue that it takes place through two decisions: a decision about whether or not to change procedures in response to the new right; and a decision about whether or not to lobby to circumscribe the new right. Our qualitative research in Germany and the UK found some differences in responses, but across the board the incumbent organizations and governments opted for very limited compliance and considerable engagement in EU politics as their preferred strategy for responding to the new destabilization rights.