Partnering to create IT-based value: A contextual ambidexterity approach

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.100273Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Development of IT-based value co-creation partnerships is related to individual efforts.

  • Types of IT-based value appear in a certain order and are dependent on each other.

  • Partnerships are continuously re-negotiated based on perceived value.

  • Contextual ambidexterity makes visible when, why and how IT-based co-creation evolves.

Abstract

Going beyond the boundary of the firm and traditional notions of how IT contributes to value creation, scholars have started to investigate under what conditions, in what ways, and with which results firms can co-create IT-based value. However, we lack comprehensive insights into how firms can develop such collaborative partnerships and the types of value they create at different stages of the process. Using a qualitative case study, we analyze in detail how a mining company, a manufacturer of mining machinery, and an IT provider developed a joint venture over a ten-year period. Drawing on ambidexterity theory, we show how the three firms successfully built a context that encouraged alignment of interests and allowed the participants to adapt to emerging conditions as they collaborated to create IT-based value. Moreover, we uncover the different types of value they created over the various stages of developing the collaboration. As a result, we contribute to the literature on IT-based value co-creation with insights into how inter-firm collaboration can be developed to create different types of IT-based value. In addition, we advance contextual ambidexterity theory by demonstrating how it applies to developing new partnerships between firms.

Keywords

Co-creation
IT-based value
Contextual ambidexterity
Inter-firm collaboration
Case study

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