IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v24y2015i2p345-382..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Simultaneous versus sequential complementarity in the adoption of technological and organizational innovations: the case of innovations in the design sphere

Author

Listed:
  • Giuliana Battisti
  • Massimo G. Colombo
  • Larissa Rabbiosi

Abstract

It is generally suggested that technological and organizational innovations, being complementary, need to be adopted simultaneously. Nevertheless, sequential rather than simultaneous adoption of these two types of innovation may be optimal. In this paper, we analyze the pattern of mutual causation of technological and organizational innovations and contribute to the understanding of their interdependencies. By the means of a test of necessary and sufficient conditions for the presence of sequential versus simultaneous complementarity, we explore the adoption of two allegedly complementary innovations in the sphere of design, namely, computer-aided design/manufacture equipment (CAD) and inter-organizational design teams with customers and suppliers (JOD). The evidence is drowned upon a longitudinal sample of Italian manufacturing plants observed over 27 years (1970–1996). We find that simultaneous adoption of the two innovations under consideration is unlikely while the likelihood of JOD adoption increases having adopted CAD. The results highlight the driving role of technological innovations, and notably of the decline in the price of IT equipment, upon the diffusion of complementary organizational innovations.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuliana Battisti & Massimo G. Colombo & Larissa Rabbiosi, 2015. "Simultaneous versus sequential complementarity in the adoption of technological and organizational innovations: the case of innovations in the design sphere," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(2), pages 345-382.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:24:y:2015:i:2:p:345-382.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtv003
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christophe Favoreu & Christophe Maurel & David Carassus & Pierre Marin, 2019. "Influence and Complementarity of Follow-on Managerial Innovations within a Public Organization," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 345-365, September.
    2. Mohamed Ali Ben Halima & Nathalie Greenan & Joseph Lanfranchi, 2021. "Organisational changes and long-term sickness absence and injury leave: a difference in difference approach," TEPP Working Paper 2021-05, TEPP.
    3. Paulin Gohoungodji & Nabil Amara, 2023. "Art of innovating in the arts: definitions, determinants, and mode of innovation in creative industries, a systematic review," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(8), pages 2685-2725, November.
    4. Douglas Cumming & Jochen Christian Werth & Yelin Zhang, 2019. "Governance in entrepreneurial ecosystems: venture capitalists vs. technology parks," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 455-484, February.
    5. Priit Vahter & Maaja Vadi, 2022. "The Relationship Of Technological And Organizational Innovation With Firm Performance: Opening The Black Box Of Dynamic Complementarities," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 138, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    6. Ully Y. Nafizah & Stephen Roper & Kevin Mole, 2024. "Estimating the innovation benefits of first-mover and second-mover strategies when micro-businesses adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 411-434, January.
    7. Ben Halima, Mohamed Ali & Greenan, Nathalie & Lanfranchi, Joseph, 2023. "Getting sick for profit? The impact of cumulative ICT and management changes on long term sickness absence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 659-688.
    8. Strong, Derek Ryan, 2017. "The Early Diffusion of Smart Meters in the US Electric Power Industry," Thesis Commons 7zprk, Center for Open Science.
    9. Laubengaier, Désirée A. & Cagliano, Raffaella & Canterino, Filomena, 2022. "It Takes Two to Tango: Analyzing the Relationship between Technological and Administrative Process Innovations in Industry 4.0," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    10. Abhay Nath Mishra & Youyou Tao & Mark Keil & Jeong-ha (Cath) Oh, 2022. "Functional IT Complementarity and Hospital Performance in the United States: A Longitudinal Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 55-75, March.
    11. Christophe Favoreu & Christophe Maurel & David Carassus & Pierre Marin, 2018. "Influence and Complementarity of Follow-on Managerial Innovations within a Public Organization," Post-Print hal-02152932, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:24:y:2015:i:2:p:345-382.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.