Introduction: In this qualitative study, we examine digital leadership (DL) capabilities and their positive influence on the management of technology-driven change by leveraging service innovations. The context of digital transformation (DT) has triggered a new leadership paradigm, among others referred to as digital leadership (DL). However, despite its practical relevance, leadership research has yet paid little attention to conceptualise DL as an approach to digitally transform organisations. Methods: Drawing on mid- and top-level mangers’ experiences with service innovation projects, and based on Grounded Theory, we develop a taxonomy of DL-related capabilities and a conceptual framework which exemplifies their influences on dynamic service innovation capabilities (DSICs). DSICs build on the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) and represent the “organisational muscle” to repeatedly deliver service innovations indicating an effective management of technology-driven change. Results and Discussion: Taxonomy results show that aggregated dimensions in terms of a digital leader’s personal, social, and organisational capital serve as underpinnings (DL-related capabilities) to drive strategic change in DT contexts. The conceptual framework further reveals that especially the personal and organisational capital of a digital leader owns several strong and moderate influences on DSICs which demonstrates DL’s “long arm” on the management of technology-driven change. Our findings contribute to leadership research by advancing the conceptualisation of DL and by adding a novel micro-foundational perspective towards the DCV discourse. As organisations struggle to realise the full benefits of DT initiatives, our results also provide a valuable contribution for practitioners by supporting them to strategically prepare for the human-related challenges of DT.

This book introduces readers to modern organizational concepts and their consequences for working people in the digital economy. Decentralization, networking, the merging of the physical and virtual worlds, and the ever-increasing interaction of human and artificial intelligence are (re) shaping organization and leadership. Digital technologies are changing the coordination of internal and external organizational processes and require new competencies. The aim of the book is to illustrate these interrelationships in a theoretically sound and practical manner. The book is intended for students of business management and practicing business managers alike.

The purpose is to provide a framework guiding service organizations while adopting new work practices and to specify effects of psychological empowerment. This research is based on a mixed-method approach to establish new theory and to determine correlations. It is claimed that the managerial framework ensures solid foundation for the quantitative analysis arguing that new work practices have positive effects on service organizations. This study contributes to new work and service literature by equipping service organizations with a framework and stating the positive effects on employees using psychological empowerment as a mediator where employees are the central resource to success.

New work practices in service organizations are perceived as a key factor to overcome external and internal challenges as well as to maintain a competitive position in the market. As academic literature solely addresses individual or fragmented measures of new work practices, literature lacks a holistic assessment for organizations revising their knowledge and updating their competencies in the field of new work. By applying a qualitative research approach the paper addresses how service organizations can acquire further competencies in the field of new work practices. Respectively, the paper identifies a conceptual framework of five dimensions: recruitment, leadership, organizational, requirements and needs as well as location decision. Therefore, the contribution of the paper is twofold. First, the paper contributes to the understanding of how new work practices are constituted and how they can foster the acquisition of knowledge in this field. Second, it introduces a conceptual framework service organizations can use as an assessment basis to revise and update their understanding of work by implementing the five dimensions.

An increasingly popular form of open innovation in the digital age is ‘making,’ where users innovate across multiple disciplines and make products that meet their needs, using mechanical, electronic, and digital components. These users have at their disposal, a wide solution space for innovation through various modular toolkits enabled by digital-age technologies. This study explores and outlines how these users simplify this wide solution space to innovate and make tangible products. Following a modularity theory perspective, it draws on case studies of users and their innovations: (1) Users with initial prototype product designs based on the Internet of things (IoT) from a maker event and (2) users with established product designs from the online community platform Thingiverse. The studies found that users reused the design in the form of existing off-the-shelf products and utilized digital fabrication and low-cost electronics hardware as a ‘glue’ to create physical and informational interfaces wherever needed, enabling bottom-up modularity. They iteratively refined their innovations, gradually replacing re-used designs with own integrated designs, reducing modularity, and reducing wastage. The study contributes to open innovation and modularity with implications on the design of products and toolkits enabled by the digital age.

Games accompany humanity all over the world. They can be powerful means to generate and impart knowledge and motivation in a playful way. Stereotypically, games are often associated with children. Still, throughout the last few years, the merits of games were also transferred into a corporate context, recognized there under the term gamification. By using game elements in a non-playful environment, this approach could help to stimulate innovation and to foster entrepreneurial as well as collaborative cultures among employees, managers, and customers. However, while gamification offers many positive aspects, the actual implementation and application within an organization remain subject to several obstacles. Hence for this study, twentyeight expert interviews from seven different industries were conducted to identify and describe those hurdles. Subsequently, an approach was developed, enabling organizations to reduce or even to avoid them.

This paper presents the design and content of a business model course for executive education. The course is inspired by the Scandinavian participatory design approach, which invites cross-disciplinary and interactive engagement. It demonstrates how a situated learning experience enables a contextual process of inquiry among participants.

An efficient and sustainable use of resources is a core task for every company to ensure competitiveness and long-term success. Compared to large companies and corporations, SMEs have fewer capacities and knowledge of how to implement resource efficiency. Therefore, we explored the drivers and barriers for SMEs in order to both overcome existing challenges and address sustainability opportunities. The empirical field is the textile industry in Germany, which is considered particularly interesting due to high competitive pressure, long value chains, and its niche specialization. For this purpose, we conducted 14 interviews with company representatives of textile SME mass customizers in Germany. The results show that there is a wide range of possibilities for a more sustainable use of resources, which help textile companies gain a great economic advantage. Findings include three drivers and barriers each, for SMEs to implement sustainability-focused activities. Managerial implications present both recommendations for the textile industry as well as related SMEs in other domains. Keywords sustainable development, sustainability, mass customization, B2B, textile industry

Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, inwieweit Geschäftsmodellentwicklung eine Strategie zur Überwindung von Marktversagen in der Assekuranz darstellt. Insbesondere soll gezeigt werden, dass eine Abkehr von der klassischen Beziehung zwischen Versichertem und Versicherer auf Basis eines bilateralen Vertrags neue Märkte eröffnet und mit neuartigen P2P-Geschäftsmodellen bislang nicht-versicherbare Risiken abgesichert werden können. Als empirisches Feld wurde die Absicherung von Wildschäden gewählt, da es sich aktuell um einen Bereich handelt, in dem Marktversagen vorliegt. Auf Basis von 16 episodischen Interviews mit Vertretern der Gemeinschaft der Jäger werden Bedürfnisstrukturen und relevante Kontextfaktoren aufgedeckt und im Hinblick auf Risikoabsicherung und Schadenmanagement zwischen den Communitymitgliedern analysiert. Dieser Beitrag stellt somit eine Gegenposition zum traditionellen Versicherungsgeschäft dar, bei der die Absicherung auf einem großen und diversifizierten Risikokollektiv beruht.

Am Beispiel der Absicherung des Wildschadens untersucht Thomas Zwack, inwieweit eine Abkehr von der klassischen Beziehung zwischen Versichertem und Versicherer auf Basis eines bilateralen Vertrags zwischen Privatpersonen neue Märkte eröffnen kann und mit neuartigen P2P-Geschäftsmodellen bislang nicht-versicherbare Risiken abgesichert werden können. Die Community of Practice ist dabei zentrales Element des Geschäftsmodells und ermöglicht die Schadenprävention und Absicherung. Durch Variationen in Struktur, Beziehung und Leistungserbringung lassen sich 18 neue Geschäftsmodellausprägungen zur Absicherung von Risiken ableiten.