The impact of digitalization on the alignment of organizational and technological process innovations: A mixed-methods case study of a manufacturing company
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2018-08-31
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en
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The aim of this master‘s thesis is to explore the impact of digitalization on the alignment between technological and organizational process innovations in a manufacturing company.
To address this, the existing literature was examined and the focal point of this research was set on one manufacturing case company pioneering in digitalization. A mixed-methods study was conducted based on the expert pool of the company. For the quantitative research, 13 responses of an online survey were collected. The qualitative research built up on nine semi-structured interviews.
By using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) for the quantitative part, the configurational sets of antecedents of process innovations were analyzed. For the qualitative part, a Strategy-as-Practice approach was used to analyze the interplay between practice, practitioners and the resulting praxis in innovation projects.
The main results are that digitalization enables the urgency for dynamism in manufacturing companies with spillovers to an agile alignment process and a shift to an agile/digital organization; and secondly that digitalization also facilitates the alignment process with new digital tools that support the stakeholder management because a higher number of internal and external practitioners are collaborating and exchanging relevant information who also have to be coordinated. This leads to the core point that digitalization boosts the alignment and makes it more efficient and effective in the long run.
The study suggests embracing digitalization, investing time and money and creating a learning environment, which opens up rigid structures and connects people so that quick adjustments in the alignment process can be fostered.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen