Riding Two Horses at The Same Time: Paradox Responses for Navigating Exploration and Exploitation in Small and Medium-Sized IT Consulting Firms
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Article in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
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ICIS 2024 Proceedings: Digital Platforms for Emerging Societies. ed. / Claudia Loebbecke; Carol Hsu; Marco Marabelli. Atlanta: AIS eLibrary, 2024. 3090.
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Article in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Riding Two Horses at The Same Time: Paradox Responses for Navigating Exploration and Exploitation in Small and Medium-Sized IT Consulting Firms
AU - Werner, Matthias
AU - Stockhinger, Jan
AU - Klein, Stefan
AU - Vieru, Dragos
N1 - ICIS 2024 Proceedings, General IS Topics > 13
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - On the one hand, due to the relentless advancements in information technologies, IT consulting firms are under constant pressure to gain new knowledge and develop innovative offerings to satisfy their clients’ needs in the long term. On the other hand, their business models hinge on the tyranny of billable hours, which emphasizes efficiency, scalable reuse and refinement of current knowledge, and a culture of operational excellence boosting short-term performance. Pursuing these demands simultaneously makes tensions salient. Focusing on two small- and medium-sized IT consulting firms, we study how they use responses discussed in paradox research to navigate exploration and exploitation. Building on paradox research and the analyzed empirical data, we develop a framework that classifies various approaches the two firms use to navigate exploration and exploitation on different levels. We contribute to recent calls for studying repertoires of paradox responses to advance our understanding of dealing with exploration and exploitation.
AB - On the one hand, due to the relentless advancements in information technologies, IT consulting firms are under constant pressure to gain new knowledge and develop innovative offerings to satisfy their clients’ needs in the long term. On the other hand, their business models hinge on the tyranny of billable hours, which emphasizes efficiency, scalable reuse and refinement of current knowledge, and a culture of operational excellence boosting short-term performance. Pursuing these demands simultaneously makes tensions salient. Focusing on two small- and medium-sized IT consulting firms, we study how they use responses discussed in paradox research to navigate exploration and exploitation. Building on paradox research and the analyzed empirical data, we develop a framework that classifies various approaches the two firms use to navigate exploration and exploitation on different levels. We contribute to recent calls for studying repertoires of paradox responses to advance our understanding of dealing with exploration and exploitation.
KW - Business informatics
UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/general_is/general_is/13/
UR - https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/
M3 - Article in conference proceedings
BT - ICIS 2024 Proceedings
A2 - Loebbecke, Claudia
A2 - Hsu, Carol
A2 - Marabelli, Marco
PB - AIS eLibrary
CY - Atlanta
T2 - International Conference on Information Systems - ICIS 2024
Y2 - 15 December 2024 through 18 December 2024
ER -