Mixing Bricks and Clicks: Organization Designs for B2C E-Commerce in Incumbent Retailers
Name
MIT_CISRwp332_BricksClicks.pdf
Size
357.39 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
0579497c8c6c41c79ee8c4774a7ad075
Author(s)
Westerman, George
Date Issued
October 1, 2002
Publisher
Cambridge, Mass.: Center for Information Systems Research, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Citation
Westerman, George. “Mixing Bricks and Clicks: Organization Designs for B2C E-Commerce in Incumbent Retailers.” Working paper 332, Center for Information Systems Research, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/175268.
Series/Report no.
MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper 4400-02
CISR Working Paper 332
Abstract
Researchers disagree over the extent to which organizations can introduce innovations such as e-commerce within existing organizational structures. Some argue that such innovations require completely autonomous innovating units. Yet, such autonomous units may have difficulty making use of scale, skills and infrastructure in the established organization. This paper attempts to resolve the apparent conflict by building and testing a new theoretical model of organizing to adopt a discontinuous innovation. Using concepts from Technology Strategy and Organization Theory, it builds a hybrid model in which organizations simultaneously build new subunits and leverage existing ones to adopt the innovation. Two characteristics of each component in the innovation translate to two aspects of subunit-level organization design. The theoretical model is tested using a novel database of organizational structure and financial performance for the e-businesses launched by 36 incumbent retailers. The study contributes to theory by helping to resolve a long-standing debate and contributes to practice by providing guidelines to help managers in organizing to adopt innovations.
Subjects
Business Models
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