Ann-Kristin Zobel
Title
Prof. Ph.D.
Last Name
Zobel
First name
Ann-Kristin
Email
ann-kristin.zobel@unisg.ch
ORCID
Phone
+41 71 224 27 95
48 results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 48
- Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Coordinating for net zero: Ecosystem strategies to tackle emissions at the sourceType:journal articleJournal:Long Range PlanningVolume:59Issue:4 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Striking a Balance: Navigating Tensions Between Collective and Member Goals in Boundary Organizations(2025-04-21); Stephen ComelloBoundary organizations aim to facilitate collective efforts, but their collaborative arrangements often fall short of initial expectations, face member exits, or experience escalating conflicts. How do diverse members of these boundary organizations stay together and pursue collective goals despite tensions with their individual goals? Drawing on the concept of agency, we explore how members respond to these tensions and reshape the boundary organization’s goals to better align with their own, while maintaining collaboration for the pursuit of collective goals. Based on an in-depth longitudinal case study of a boundary organization in the energy sector, we developed a process model that explains how and why agency evolves over time. It outlines different trajectories through which members achieve a balance between collective and member goals, offering insights into how boundary organizations can either sustain themselves or fail. Our findings emphasize that goal pursuit is a dynamic process, where members continuously shift their focus between collective and member goals to maintain a balance over time. The process model explicates the agentic mechanisms behind these shifts in focus, revealing a dynamic interplay between two forms of agency that differ in their temporal orientation and locus of agency. We extend prior research that has focused on the governance structures and organizing practices in boundary organizations, by offering insights into why these boundary organizations may prevail, as they continuously shift their agency to navigate resurfacing tensions.Type:journal articleJournal:Organization ScienceScopus© Citations 2 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Open Innovation's Potential in the Metaverse: Leveraging Digital Features to Build Trust with Partners(2024); Type:journal articleJournal:California Management ReviewVolume:67Issue:1 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Digital Sustainability Strategies: Digitally Enabled and Digital-First Innovation for Net Zero(Academy of Management, 2024-03-18); ; Scopus© Citations 31 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, A temporal perspective on boundary spanning: engagement dynamics and implications for knowledge transferThis study adopts a temporal perspective to investigate how boundary spanners can increase the inflow of external knowledge by engaging with both external and internal parties. We add to prior work on knowledge transfer by shifting the focus from engagement levels to investigating engagement dynamics, especially the degree of switching between external and internal engagement across consecutive time periods. Drawing from a cognitive perspective, we argue that switching strongly between engagement types is associated with a segmented knowledge structure that enables quick and efficient categorical processing when knowledge can simply be “channeled” from source to recipient units. In contrast, weak or no switching is associated with a blended knowledge structure and more reflective processing, which is particularly helpful when knowledge transfer requires more translation and transformation. Correspondingly, we adopt a contingency perspective and theorize that the cognitive advantages associated with stronger versus weaker switching weigh differently, contingent on the stickiness of knowledge to be transferred and the nature of boundary-spanning activities that vary in importance over time. Fixed effects models of eight waves of original survey data reveal that, in line with our theorizing, the association between switching and knowledge transfer becomes increasingly negative (1) the more boundary spanners access knowledge that is transspecialist in nature, (2) the greater the organizational distance between source and recipient units, and (3) in later phases of the boundary-spanning process.Type:journal articleJournal:Organization ScienceVolume:35Issue:2Scopus© Citations 28 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, How firms realign to tackle the grand challenge of climate change: An innovation ecosystems perspectiveThis study investigates how, why, and under which conditions incumbents and new entrants realign in innovation ecosystems to collectively tackle the grand challenge (GC) of climate change. The discussion on innovation and GCs is still lacking sufficient theoretical underpinnings and empirical insights to make sense of the role of for-profit firms and their collaborative innovation efforts to address the GCs of our times. We introduce innovation ecosystems as a theoretical lens for understanding the combinations of technological inter faces and strategic relations that firms can employ to craft value propositions with high potential for tackling GCs. Empirically, this study focuses on the GC of climate change that requires a transformation of the electricity sector. We investigate collaborative pilot projects between 10 international electric utili ties and 57 clean-tech startups. In these pilots, incumbents and new entrants explore low-carbon value propositions through novel technological interfaces and strategic relations. Via qualitative comparative analysis, we identify three configurations of ecosystem realignment with high climate impact: an incumbent-led digital platform realignment, a device complementor and customer-enabling realignment, and a new orchestrator realignment. Based on a multiple case analysis, we uncover three innovation mechanisms that explain why these specific configurations unlock climate impact: they enhance resource efficiency, the flexibility and resilience of infrastructure, and the trad ing and leveraging of information and resources. On this basis, we contribute to the literature at the intersection of innovation management and GCs by developing theory that explicates (1) how the realignment of incumbents and startups in innovation ecosystems changes existing industry structures; (2) why specific configurations of such ecosystems are associated with high cli mate impact and are thus effective in addressing GCs; and (3) the boundary conditions under which collective innovation efforts in ecosystems can trans late into climate impactType:journal articleJournal:Journal of Product Innovation ManagementScopus© Citations 81 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Implications of open innovation for organizational boundaries and the governance of contractual relationsTo create value in an open innovation context, firms need to increase the permeability of their organizational boundaries to enable knowledge exchange with a broad set of partners. Yet, in order to capture value, firms also need to consider how to govern their cooperative efforts and prevent unintended knowledge leakage. This paper develops a novel framework for researching this “paradox of openness”, which combines an organizational boundary with a relational contract design perspective. First, we extend prior literature by arguing that value is not only created by optimizing resource bundles through external search processes (i.e. competence boundaries). Instead, value can be created by managing interdependencies with external parties (i.e. power boundaries), aligning OI activities with the organization’s identity (i.e. identity boundaries), and coordinating diverse transactions in an OI portfolio (i.e. efficiency boundaries). Second, we propose that relational contract design is an important alternative to formal appropriation regimes and discuss how contractual mechanisms derived from a relational perspective can enable value capture in an OI context. Finally, we discuss how firms can strategically manage configurations of firm boundaries and contract design via a set of dynamic capabilities.Type:journal articleJournal:Academy of Management PerspectivesVolume:34Issue:3Scopus© Citations 91 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Partner Type Diversity in Alliance Portfolios: Multiple Dimensions, Boundary Conditions and Firm Innovation PerformanceOur research extends the current knowledge based view on the configuration of alliance portfolios and their deployment in different external knowledge environments. We study these alliance portfolios in a longitudinal sample (1996–2010) for over three thousand firms that operate in a large number of industries in the Netherlands. Our findings indicate that partner type variety and partner type relevance, as different dimensions of partner diversity in alliance portfolios, both have an inverted U‐shaped association with firm innovation performance. However, alliance portfolios characterized by both high partner type variety and high relevance cause inferior innovation performance. Different external knowledge environments, characterized by different levels of industry modularity and scope of knowledge distribution, moderate the inverted U‐shaped associations of partner type variety and relevance in alliance portfolios with firm innovation performance in opposing directions. While for partner type variety, a high level is found to be optimal in environments with greater modularity or broader scope of knowledge distribution, for partner type relevance it turns out that a low level is optimal under more modular industry conditions.Type:journal articleJournal:Journal of Management StudiesVolume:55Issue:5Scopus© Citations 118 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Formal and informal appropriation mechanisms: The role of openness and innovativenessThis paper analyses how firms’ degree of openness and innovativeness influence their use of formal and informal appropriation mechanisms. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and design rights are formal appropriation mechanisms. Secrecy, lead-time, and complexity are examples of informal appropriation mechanisms. Both external search breadth and depth are positively associated with firms’ use of informal appropriation mechanisms, while only external search breadth is positively associated with formal appropriation mechanisms. Firms’ degree of radical (incremental) innovation orientation is negatively (positively) associated with their use of formal appropriation mechanisms. Analysis of the joint impact of openness and innovativeness, suggests that for radical innovators it is external search breadth (rather than depth) that has a positive association with the use of informal appropriation mechanisms. In contrast, for radical innovators external search depth (rather than breadth) is associated with the use of formal appropriation mechanisms. For incremental innovators, external search breadth (rather than depth) is associated with the use of both formal and informal appropriation mechanisms.Type:journal articleJournal:TechnovationVolume:59Scopus© Citations 142 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Benefiting from Open Innovation: A Multidimensional Model of Absorptive CapacityWhile recent studies shed some light on the performance implications of open innovation, there is a gap in understanding how firms can translate their openness into innovation outcomes. In particular, it is unclear whether—and if so, how—firms can create a competitive advantage in product innovation by tapping into external sources of innovation. To address this gap, this study conceptualizes multidimensional components of absorptive capacity and develops a nomological network that explicates relationships between these components and competitive advantage in product innovation. By marrying the open innovation and absorptive capacity perspectives, higher‐order models of absorptive capacity are proposed which delineate the underlying processes to recognize, assimilate, and exploit external sources of innovation. The empirical analysis of the nomological network based on original survey data reveals important findings. First, there is a positive indirect baseline association between external technological resource access and competitive advantage in product innovation, mediated by the firm's technology‐related capabilities. Second, components of absorptive capacity modify this indirect baseline relationship. Recognition capacity is positively associated with external technological resource access and therefore, operates as an antecedent to the proposed baseline relationship. Assimilation capacity constitutes a relevant condition to the proposed baseline relationship. The indirect association between external technological resource access and competitive advantage in product innovation is dependent on the level of assimilation capacity. Exploitation capacity has an additional and independent direct positive association with competitive advantage in product innovation. This study contributes to the open innovation literature by delineating organizational processes that help to explain interfirm differences in benefiting from external sources of innovation. In addition, this study adds to the absorptive capacity literature by developing and validating a set of measures that captures, individually and in concert, three components of absorptive capacity.Type:journal articleJournal:Journal of Product Innovation ManagementVolume:34Issue:3Scopus© Citations 206