Browsing by Subject "Organizational culture"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

A software for corporate entrepreneurship? The role of organizational culture for stimulating entrepreneurial orientation in family firms
(2019) Arz, Christopher; Kuckertz, Andreas
This doctoral thesis comprises three empirical studies which together seek to shed light upon the question of which and how specific manifestations of organizational culture (OC) are able to support entrepreneurial behaviors and activities in established organizations (corporate entrepreneurship; CE). As a whole, this thesis addresses a variety of research questions, relying on different methodological approaches and data sets. More specifically, I use both original and secondary data, and I draw on qualitative, interpretive as well as quantitative, positivist research design. The specific objectives, concepts, and methods of the studies are guided by the two overarching research questions of this thesis: 1) What are the dominant cultural patterns of family firms that create an organizational environment where corporate entrepreneurship flourishes? 2) How exactly do these cultural patterns operate and interact in the process of stimulating corporate entrepreneurship? The first study titled “Mechanisms of Organizational Culture for Fostering Corporate Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda” provides a broad overview of the current body of knowledge on the OC-CE relationship and synthesizes generic OC mechanisms supportive of CE into an explicit framework. Adopting the method of structured literature review and realist synthesis, it analyzes 46 empirical and conceptual papers published in peer-reviewed journals and strives to make sense of the diverse, and partly conflicting, theoretical predictions and empirical findings which currently characterize the field. To accomplish that, the study integrates eight generic OC dimensions and two basic layers of culture to enable CE-supportive cultural mechanisms to be synthesized into a clear matrix. Doing so allows for more a fine-grained understanding of how OC may create an environment where CE flourishes. Based on the synthesis, research avenues are identified to encourage future work on the topic. The second study titled “Bridging the Micro-Macro Gap: A Multi-Layer Culture Framework for Understanding Entrepreneurial Orientation in Family Firms” responds to the enduring unanswered call for qualitative research on the topic of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) that is located within an interpretivist-oriented philosophy. Employing an interpretivist single case study design, the study seeks to elaborate the theory of EO in family firms by delivering a rich and deeply contextualized understanding of the business-level mechanisms that operate between family-level values (micro level) and firm-level EO (macro level) in a second-generation German family firm. Specifically, it adopts a multi-layer theory of culture as interpretive framework to develop a grounded model that cuts across analytical levels of family and business. The illustration of the data, based on a qualitative content analysis of both archival data and ethnographic interview data, shows how the unique cultural patterns of the firm operate as social mechanisms to stimulate EO. Specifically, family-level values of altruism and preservation have been found to prepare the ground for an OC characterized by long-term- and involvement-oriented organizational values as well as psychological safety and empowerment climates. Eventually, these climates represent the most salient cultural layer and effectively support the firm’s competitive orientation toward corporate entrepreneurship. Finally, the third study of this thesis titled “Stimulating Entrepreneurial Orientation in Family Firms: A Multi-Layer Culture Model” takes a more technical (positivist) perspective on the phenomenon of OC and investigates how the specific business-level cultural mechanisms of family firms can transform the intimate connection between family and business into high levels of EO. To provide a deeper understanding of the forces that nurture EO in family firms, the study finds a way to bridge the gap between family-level characteristics and firm-level EO by integrating family commitment culture, long-term orientation, and stewardship climate into a multi-layer culture framework. The research model that derives from this perspective proposes a two-step mediation process, intending to explain how family commitment culture, as a family-level value orientation, is transformed into high levels of EO through OC mechanisms. The model was tested by analyzing data of 208 mature German family firms using covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM). Consistent with the proposed multi-layer structure, the SEM model’s results support the hypothesis that, when high levels of EO are desired, family firms ought to focus on what type of cultural mechanisms are triggered at the business level through a family commitment culture.
Cultural change in servitization
(2025) Biesinger, Benjamin; Hadwich, Karsten
Manufacturers are increasingly transforming into industrial service providers. Driven by product commoditization and rapid technology cycles, they increasingly compete on value delivered to customers by shifting their business model to integrated solutions with advanced services. The phenomenon coined servitization can be a powerful engine for manufacturers to grow beyond their traditional product business. Since product and service businesses operate on a fundamentally different logic, servitization requires changes in manufacturers’ deep-rooted organizational beliefs, values and behaviors. Accordingly, creating a culture that supports servitization is critical. Cultural change is widely recognized in servitization research but remains poorly understood. While literature increasingly contributes to understanding “what” values and behaviors that support servitization, insights into “how” change processes shape servitization cultures remain limited. Aiming to support academics and practitioners addressing cultural change in servitization, this dissertation examines how manufacturers change their organizational culture as they transform into industrial service providers and the practices that facilitate the change process. Section 1 presents an overview of industrial and academic perspective on the challenges of cultural change in servitization. Content challenges involve conceptualizing the multiple layers of servitization culture, synthesizing existing concepts and constructs, and expanding digital and learning culture frameworks. Process challenges focus on integrating organizational and sociocognitive theories while identifying holistic change practices. Context challenges center on understanding the role of service-driven mergers and acquisitions, digital technologies and ecosystems, and the transformative shift toward resilience and sustainability. Building on these academic challenges, the section concludes by outlining the dissertation’s aims and structure to address them. Section 2, “Cultural change in servitization – a conceptual review and framework,” concerns the content and process of social construction as servitizing manufacturers change their culture. The article integrates organizational and sociopsychological theories to develop an organizational learning framework for cultural change, explaining the emergence and interaction of organizational and member-level concepts. Second, the framework guides a systematic literature review to integrate fragmented knowledge on cultural change in servitization and establish conceptual order. The article presents 12 propositions, revealing three major cultural orientations (service, digital and learning) and offering guidance for managing organizational and member-level change. Section 3, “The role of strategic and learning orientation in creating competitive advantage through digital service innovation,” concerns fostering organizational learning to drive digital service innovation. The conceptual article integrates recent advances in digital servitization and organizational learning within the resource-based and dynamic capabilities view. It challenges prior assumptions in the field by conceptualizing learning orientation as a moderator of strategic digital, service and innovation orientation to drive servitization performance. The article presents four propositions on the cultural antecedents and conditions, offering guidance for change management to achieve competitive advantage and resilience through digital service innovation. Section 4, “Path towards servitization culture: Unveiling the organizational learning practices to support the cultural change from product manufacturing to independent service provision,” concerns a manufacturer’s cultural change to become a leading independent service provider through service-driven M&A, internationalization and corporate restructuring. The article gathers data from interviews and company documents to obtain a dynamic view of cultural change in servitization. The in-depth, long-term single case study identifies three cultural streams permeating culture during the transformation: independent service orientation, customer orientation and entrepreneurial learning orientation. The organizational learning practices to freeze the emerging ISP culture, rebalance the global ISP culture and unfreeze the ISP learning culture offer guidance for managing continuous change processes. Section 5 provides a concluding analysis of the articles, deriving theoretical contributions, practical implications and a future research agenda. From a theoretical perspective, this dissertation introduces organizational learning as a framework to explore the emergent and human aspects of change in servitization and conceptualizes the servitization culture. Moreover, it extends the notion of continuous change, interorganizational change and servitization culture as a transformative response to technological and societal disruption. For practitioners, this research integrates its findings with prescriptive models of learning organizations to formulate principles for strategies and practices that support the creation of a servitization culture. The research agenda focuses on advancing research on servitization culture in Industry 5.0, extending multilevel research and introducing configuration and intervention as a research strategy for cultural change in servitization.