Firms that develop complex products have a strong incentive to leverage the suppliers’ specialized knowledge. On the other hand, firms are often confronted with a trade-off between the benefits of leveraging external sources of innovation and the benefits of competence accumulation provided by...

Traditionally, routines have been perceived as a primary source of inertia, which slows down organizational change and hinders organizational adaptation. Advancing prior research on routine dynamics, this study examines how inertia in routines influences the process of organizational adaptation,...

Designing complex product systems across firms poses significant organizational challenges. While much research has focused on how interdependencies between system components can hamper the integration of collective efforts, the fact that complex systems consist of multiple hierarchic levels has...

This paper considers the trade-off between leveraging external sources of innovation by outsourcing design and engineering activities and the ability to develop internal product development competences. The trade-off arises because the division of labor within and across firms' boundaries has a...

The concept of organizational routine can foster our understanding of the behavior of organizations and of organizational change [Nelson, R.R., Winter, S.G., 1982. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, Cambridge; March, J.G., Simon, H.A., 1958....

Organizational routines are considered basic components of organizational behavior and repositories of organizational capabilities (Nelson & Winter, 1982). They do, therefore, hold one of the keys to understanding organizational change. The article focuses on how the concept of organizational...