Currently, we are witnessing firms engaging in acquisitions to explore new business models. However, despite operating within similar industry sectors, integrating these business models can be challenging. Beyond the mere integration of operational aspects, this paper argues that business model integration should encompass two crucial dimensions: the integration of market architectural strategies and the assimilation of mindsets that drive market operations. The paper constructs a typology for business model integration, grounded in the integration of market architectural strategies, and mindsets and illustrates the types through international acquisition examples. The paper contributes to existing research by exploring integration within the context of business model acquisitions. The division into market architectural strategies and mindset advances past understanding of business models. The conceptualization of "value-creation culture" extends the boundaries of past acquisition research and underscores the significance of mindsets associated with new business models.

PurposeWhile existing literature extensively explores manufacturing firms expanding into services, little is known about the modes of servitisation, the means by which they carry it out. This paper concentrates on acquisitions as a mode of servitisation. Post-acquisition integration is when the potential of an acquisition is realised. The paper therefore aims to categorise types of integrations following the acquisition of servitised firms and discusses their consequences for servitisation.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical part of the paper is based on two case studies, each involving the acquisition of servitised firms. Both acquirers changed their integration approach over time.FindingsThe paper conceptualises three types of integrations: rhetorical, insulated and transformative integrations, indicating whether and how the acquirer becomes servitised following the integration. These highlight the analysis of integration based on business models and customer orientation in relation to servitisation.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to research on servitisation by emphasising acquisitions as a mode of servitisation and conceptualising three integration types related to business models and customer orientations. Furthermore, the paper highlights how an acquirer's servitisation leads to new offerings targeting new customers, as opposed to strengthening existing relationships.

Grand challenges vary across industries and call for firms to craft a responsible innovation response to effectively address them. However, key questions concerning why firms embrace responsible innovation and the process by which they respond to grand challenges have yet to be fully answered. We integrate an issue-selling theoretical lens and the customer role from an innovation perspective to theorize about the different influencing motives that customers exert on their corresponding supplying firm to craft a more responsible innovation response to grand challenges. Based on qualitative data collected in almost a 10-year period from multiple respondents across eight customer firms and two supplying firms, we identify three core motives-regulatory, business opportunity, and socio-environmental motives-that propel customers to influence supplying firms to craft different forms of responsible innovation responses. Our research also reveals three vital socio-human capital pathways-human capital, socio-behavioral, and relationship-which, in turn, foster a co-active engagement in addressing grand challenges innovatively and responsibly. In so doing, this research advances novel theorizing on co-active engagement in responsible innovation where the customer acts as the primary champion and the supplier as the implementer. We discuss the important implications for customers and other stakeholders.

This paper builds on the creation of new ways of organizing work, where the freelance economy specifically targets the increasing number of skilled self-employed individuals collaborating for shared output. Through describing and discussing creativity within the freelance economy, this paper seeks to understand creativity in collaborations among these self-employed individuals. Drawing from a case study conducted in the advertising sector, the paper concludes that creativity within the freelance economy occurs between equal and inherently creative freelancers rather than being the product of individual traits, despite their respective skills. Creativity between individuals arises when processes are appropriately formalized, while the creative output is constrained by individual decisions and styles. The paper contributes to existing research by shedding light on the distinctive characteristics of the freelance economy and its paradoxical organizational nature. By doing so, it offers insights that contrast with prior studies on artistic creativity.

For grocery e-commerce, the operational challenges in the last mile delivery (LMD) strategies and structures are still an issue, especially for local firms delivering perishable product offerings containing local produce. At the local level, the LMD of the local grocery retailer to the customers could potentially allow for a more efficient inbound logistics from local producers to the grocery retailer, if compared to national/international producers, as they are regionally close. However, little is known on how to immerse the operational challenges of LMD grocery products to include not only the retailer and the customer perspective, but also the producer, in a more symbiotic and sustainable local supply chain in rural regions. This paper explores the operational challenges that a local grocery retailer, their local grocery producers, and their customers face with deliveries (outbound or LMD), respectively. By doing this, areas to optimize LMD and their inherent efficiency challenges can be conceptualized at a regional level, with interlinkages between local supply chain actors to indicate a symbiotic and sustainable supply chain. By conducting a case study, the article shows that it is difficult to achieve an efficient LMD to include the inbound logistics at the regional level, given the firms’ (retailer and supplier) contextual boundaries and the customers’ demand. Financial resources are one dimension that prevents symbiotic operational solutions between the retailer and the local producer, and it is unclear if customers are as flexible as they need to be to enable a sustainable supply chain. In addition, the study shows that the creation of a symbiotic and sustainable supply chain at the regional level builds on the tradeoff between LMD and inbound logistics when local producers are included as important actors of LMD. The study also highlights how the local grocery retailer has the relational position in the local supply chain to enable a symbiotic and sustainable supply chain.

Purpose

Corporate changes not only impact the firms involved but also have consequences for their ecosystems. However, the existing literature on ecosystem change is limited. This paper describes and discusses the interconnected patterns between corporate and ecosystem change, shedding light on the various forms these changes take.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical part of the paper is based on the case study of two previously merged organizations' separation.

Findings

The paper reveals intensifying and dissipating change patterns, illustrating the linkages between rapid and gradual corporate and ecosystem changes within and across various ecosystem spheres. Three spheres are conceptualized: sphere of control, sphere of interdependency and sphere of negotiation, each indicating a separate change pattern.

Originality/value

The contribution of this paper lies in its discussion on interconnected corporate and ecosystem changes, offering valuable insights for situating corporate change within the ecosystem and establishing a vocabulary for ecosystem change. Moreover, through the empirical study of a corporate divorce, the paper enhances our understanding of this specific form of change.

This commentary explores the untapped potential of incorporating Swedish fika into culinary culture and gastronomy tourism, emphasizing its significance in destination branding and product value offerings. It integrates the social, temporal, spatial, and symbolic aspects of Swedish fika from a multidisciplinary perspective, to provide a holistic view that can guide the exploration of culinary culture and daily practices into enhancing perceived values across offerings. Described as a national interest, Swedish fika is deeply intertwined with values of democracy, open atmospheres, and agenda-free meetings, creating positive associations in branding.

The sharing economy was initially beckoned as a facilitator of exchanges that would not compromise future needs and held great promise for those at the lower end of the socioeconomic pyramid. However, as the sharing economy expanded, questions about its sustainability emerged. This expansion manifested in two main forms: an influx of new users and providers into existing operations and the emergence of new platforms, resulting in a proliferation of sharing economy models. By categorizing these models based on their resource utilization, this paper establishes a connection between scalability and compromised sustainability, shedding light on the interplay between the two. The paper identifies seven distinct configurations in the sharing economy: co-use, re-use, repeated use, sustainable output, pooling of resources, and products and services created specifically for individual users. These configurations serve as a tool to uncover the tensions between scalability and coordination, as well as between sustainability and provision. The paper contributes to prior research by bringing attention to how the sharing economy is entangled in these tensions and by developing a typology. Understanding how these tensions can be resolved presents a highly significant practical contribution, allowing stakeholders in the sharing economy to navigate the challenges of scalability and sustainability effectively.

Additive manufacturing, or three-dimensional (3D) printing, refers to a layer-based production technology. A product is created through layers that are melted together. The layer-based manufacturing means that new surfaces can be shaped with complex forms created and combined in a single manufacturing process. It leads to components or entire products being printed locally. As a technology, it infers extensive changes for (a) product and production design, (b) supply chain options, and (c) business models. It does so because additive manufacturing opens opportunities not only for new product designs but also for firm operations and offerings. More specifically, additive manufacturing enables advanced organic designs manufactured as one piece, local on-demand printing of spare parts, and the printing of full-scaled prototypes to fit and test with final solutions. Movable parts can be printed as one single product and through one single production process. The local manufacturing reduces the need for transportations and subsuppliers. New business models include firms specializing in additive manufacturing for others, such as fab labs and printing houses. Through these changes, additive manufacturing challenges manufacturers of tools and parts as well as demand for logistics solutions. Customization, higher product precision, and increased sustainability are positive consequences of additive manufacturing. Meanwhile, additive manufacturing raises concerns about who owns the product design and who carries responsibilities for the product. Additive manufacturing affects product and production design, supply chains, and business models, and businesses face several ethical dilemmas regarding this new technology. Examples are provided to illustrate additive manufacturing practices.