Ulrika H. Westergren

Technologies for value creation: an exploration of remote diagnostics systems in the manufacturing industry

Abstract.  With firms increasingly relying on ubiquitous computing to implement major business initiatives, it is becoming ever more necessary to understand the technological aspects of business developments. This paper analyzes the use of remote diagnostics systems in the manufacturing industry and discusses the opportunities and challenges for the early adopters. It pays specific attention to the impact on business aspects such as the value creation process consisting of relationships, roles, and architecture and the value proposal consisting of a business offer and customer value. The study shows how ubiquitous computing allows manufacturers to become remote service providers while customers can either become co‐creators of value or passive receivers of created value. Ubiquitous computing also creates possibilities for the manufacturing industry to design new kinds of business offers based on remote presence. Studying remote diagnostics systems shows that ubiquitous computing creates value when deployed in products, and not just in relation to individuals. Moreover, the design of the value‐creation process should not be limited to the single supplier or customer organization, as ubiquitous computing applications take no notice of organizational boundaries.

Exploring preconditions for open innovation: Value networks in industrial firms

The open innovation model embraces the purposive flow of internal and external ideas as a foundation for innovation and network formation. While the open innovation paradigm has been successfully applied in high-tech settings, there is a lack of research on adopters of open innovation in other settings. We describe a case study conducted in a process industry setting, focusing on the LKAB mineral group as it makes a transition from a closed to a more open innovation context by adopting remote diagnostics technology. This process has resulted in the creation of new value networks. By tracing the reasoning behind the organizational transformation and studying the technology used to carry it through, we seek to explore the preconditions for open innovation and provide insight into the role of IT in the process. Our findings show that adoption of the open innovation model is grounded in developing organizational environments that are conducive to innovation, including expertise in creating a culture for knowledge sharing, building a trustful environment, and a resourceful use of IT.

Opening up innovation: the impact of contextual factors on the co-creation of IT-enabled value adding services within the manufacturing industry

This paper examines the contextual factors that influenced an open innovation project failure. To this end the paper adds to the discussion on open innovation in non high-tech settings and highlights the importance of contextual factors as determinants of success or failure within the open innovation paradigm. It is based on a case study performed at PowerDrive, a manufacturer of hydraulic drive systems, and three of its customers, and follows their attempt to co-create new value-adding services through the innovative use of information technology in the form of a remote monitoring system. The study shows that open innovation project success cannot be measured only in terms of coherence with set targets of quality, time, and costs, but also has to include the creation of mutual value and the development of trust and strong inter-organizational relationships. Furthermore, the role and character of information technology has to be considered and accounted for and the social context made explicit. By managing the value creation process, the value proposal stands a better chance of indeed providing value.

From Senses to Sensors

One key dimension of the virtualization of the workplace is the formation of new types of partnerships where organizations let internal functions be handled by an external partner, the so-called outsourcing of services. The formation of an outsourcing partnership imposes the risk of knowledge-drainage on the client organization as specific internal competence decreases when the service provider takes over the technological knowledge and has a significant impact on the business processes in general. The aim of this paper is to address the issue of partnership outsourcing and to explore strategies that are used to keep the competence within the client organization even as it opens itself up to the partnership. Based on the framework of Four Outsourcing Relationship Types provided by Kishore et al. [1], this paper investigates the relationship between a large minerals group, Alpha Corp. and its remote service provider, RDC. Alpha has three different strategies for maintaining competence within the organization while engaging in the outsourcing relationship. The first is exploiting the full potential of its partnership with RDC, the second is heavy investment in information technology, and the third is structured and systematic maintenance. The findings of the study show that the relationship between Alpha and RDC can be characterized as an alliance type relationship and that the only way for Alpha to preserve competence is to maintain an inspired and engaged workforce and fully embrace the partnership in order to create a win-win situation.

Exploring Service System Resources: The Role of Technology

This paper traces a firms transition from goods-dominant to service-dominant logic using a remote monitoring system. By adopting a service system perspective and tracing its main resources involved in value creation, we have examined the value propositions that are brought forth, and the roles the different resources play. We have shown how the introduction of a new technology in the form of an RMS has a potentially strong impact on the other three resources in the service system, organization, by grounding service processes in data collection and analysis, people, through changing trust relationships, and shared information, by becoming the systems language, laws and measures. Thus, by paying specific attention to technology, we may also see and work with its potential.

Open Innovation Success or Failure - The Impact of Contextual Factors

This paper examines the contextual factors that influenced an open innovation project failure. To this end the paper adds to the discussion on open innovation in non high-tech settings and highlights the importance of contextual factors as determinants of success or failure within the open innovation paradigm. It is based on a case study performed at PowerDrive, a manufacturer of hydraulic drive systems, and three of its customers, and follows their attempt to co-create new value-adding services through the innovative use of information technology. The study shows that open innovation project success cannot be measured only in terms of coherence with set targets of quality, time, and costs, but also has to include the creation of mutual value and the development of strong inter-organizational relationships. Furthermore, the role and character of information technology has to be considered and accounted for.

The Inter-Organizational Dynamics of a Platform Ecosystem: Exploring Stakeholder Boundaries

The Internet of Things (IoT) creates a myriad of new business opportunities that focus on collecting, transmitting, and analyzing product data. IoT collaborations bring together diverse firms with separate skill-sets that both produce and utilize digitized data to co-create value. While previous research has explored the technical implications of IoT in great detail, it has largely ignored the business implications of such endeavors. In this paper, we focus on the early stages of the emerging inter-organizational relationships that IoT enables and ask the question: How can the inter-organizational dynamics between disparate actors in an IoT ecosystem be perceived and understood? By conducting a qualitative case study and tracing four types of organizational boundaries: efficiency, power, competence and identity, we show how firm boundaries are emergent, dynamic, and constantly negotiated between firms. Allowing for and understanding this relational interplay is crucial in order for IoT ecosystems to thrive and grow.

Managing an outsourcing partnership : important stages in the process

This paper describes the efforts in ensuring research relevance by means of an industrial PhD project. The project is aiming at strengthening the relevance of research and development by educating ...This chapter explores issues associated with the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in process industries and the inherent tension between control and flexibility in IT infrastruc ...