Veröffentlichungen von Axel Hund

Journal-Artikel (Peer Reviewed)

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Digital innovation: Review and novel perspective
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (30:4), 101695, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2021.101695 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A )

View Abstract
While research has produced valuable insights about digital innovation, we lack a comprehensive understanding about its core nature, and research across disciplinary boundaries lacks integration. To address these issues, we review 227 articles on digital innovation across eight disciplines. Based on our findings, we (1) inductively develop a new definition and propose a new framing of current conceptualizations of digital innovation, (2) organize central concepts of the literature on digital phenomena and show how they intersect with our conceptualization, and (3) develop a framework to organize digital innovation research according to five key themes. We conclude by identifying two particularly promising areas of future research.

Konferenz-Artikel (Peer Reviewed)

Frey, J., Finze, N., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2024)
From Communication to Motivation: Leveraging Scaling Agility for IT-Business Alignment
Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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IT-business alignment is a crucial objective for organizations and is influenced by the structural changes brought about by digital transformation. One such structural change, Scaling Agility, has been identified as influential on IT-business alignment at the strategic level. However, its precise roles and concrete activities in this context, which contribute to a better alignment, have yet to be studied. We therefore seek to answer the question: What is the role of Scaling Agility in IT-business alignment? A qualitative case study series with four organizations over two years surfaces a total of twelve activities within the four activity categories: (1) Understanding and Appreciation, (2) Fostering Trust and Openness, (3) Propelling Togetherness, and (4) Achieving Self-Determination. These activities can be aggregated into three levels: communicator, mediator, and motivator. The study extends the literature on the beneficial role of Scaling Agility and concrete activities in IT-business alignment in the context of digital transformation.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., Frey, J., and Hildebrandt, Y. (2024)
Externalizing Digital Options Thinking: How Corporate Venture Builders Generate Opportunities to Invest in Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus

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To avoid conflicts with the core business and the existing organizational identity, incumbents increasingly externalize their digital innovation activities by handing them over to separate innovation units. While IS research provides knowledge on how internally driven innovations are initiated and developed in such units, we do not yet understand how they capitalize on internal resources, combine them with external ones, and pursue competitive actions with digital technologies. To address this issue, we apply a digital options thinking lens to investigate how corporate venture builders (CVBs) generate digital options for incumbent firms, ie, opportunities to invest in digital innovations. Based on a case study with six CVBs, we find that such units bundle incumbents’ resources and digital innovation trends (novel technologies and digital business models) into digital options through four roles. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of adding a detailed preparation process to the digital options framework.

Finze, N., Frey, J., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2023)
“Who Am I When Everything has Changed?” The Impact of Scaled-agile Organizations on Professional Role Identity
Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hyderabad, India

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As digital technology continues to advance, organizations require more flexibility to meet the needs of their customers and remain competitive. To do so, many incumbent organizations fundamentally change their established structures and processes to implement scaled-agile organizations (SAO), emulating digital organizations and leveraging development speed and customer focus. However, when everything changes, there are significant effects on the employees’ identities. Thus, we explore how implementing an SAO affects employees’ professional role identities (PRI). The paper follows a case study approach analyzing two cases with 21 interviews, observational, and secondary data collected over a period of 18 months. We contribute to the literature by identifying three effects of an SAO implementation on PRI (threat, empowerment, and extension) and describing how individuals react based on the effect on their PRI. We inform practitioners on the overall SAO implementation process and consequences for professionals, offering a new perspective on organizational transformation challenges.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Scaling Agility for Digital Transformation: How Organizations Manage Arising Tensions
Proceedings of the 83rd Academy of Management Conference, Boston, US

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Scaling agility has emerged as a response by incumbent organizations to take on digital transformation efforts. However, scaling agility comes with organizational challenges, especially tensions that need to be addressed. Therefore, we employ an exploratory common process case study series design to answer the following research questions: Which tensions underlie scaling agility efforts, and how can they be resolved? We identify four tensions and demonstrate resolution strategies to manage these tensions. With this, we seek to uncover how scaling agility can be designed to minimize tensions and maximize the effectiveness of scaling agility. In doing so, we provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.

Finze, N., Frey, J., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Gewald, H. (2022)
Cross-functional Identity? The Impact of Scaled-agile Organizations’ Transformation Processes on Professional Role Identity.
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Copenhagen, Denmark

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Within the ever-faster changing digitalized world, organizational work models constantly evolve towards increased agility to ensure innovation and competitive performance. Initially, agile methods were designed for small teams to develop software products. However, the focus has shifted towards combining and strategically expanding agile teams into scaled-agile organizations (SAOs). Traditionally, individuals’ role perception was highly dependent on hierarchical structures. However, when a new organizational model is implemented, hierarchical roles and structures change. To understand how the transformation into SAOs affects individuals’ professional role identity (PRI) and how they reconstruct their PRI in SAOs, we conduct a qualitative case study with employees holding various positions in SAOs. Our work contributes to the literature by providing insights into individuals’ opportunities and challenges within SAO transformation processes. Our preliminary findings indicate PRI changes from team-based to product-based PRIs as a reaction to the (novel) cross-functional SAO structure. However, if the transformation is involuntary we see inherent role conflicts, identity losses, and the occurrence of agile silos as employees try to retain their previous PRIs.

Müller, L., Hund, A., and Wagner, H. (2022)
DIGITAL CONVERGENCE: EXAMINING THE DISSOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES
Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)

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Digital convergence is frequently discussed in research. The concept of convergence describes how formerly separate areas are increasingly merging. So far, however, we have only a rudimentary understanding of digital convergence for several reasons. First, digital convergence is not clearly conceptualized and used differently across contexts. Second, we have little insight into what is converging and at what pace. We conceptualize digital convergence by arguing that its sociotechnical nature requires jointly considering technical and social aspects. Our analysis of a longitudinal patent data set covering 31 years and 677,045 patents from 124 industries shows that (1) industry boundaries defined by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) are dissolving as companies interact with technological knowledge outside their industrial boundaries. (2) Specific technology classes defined in the International Patent Classification (IPC) increasingly cite - and converge with - other technology classes. We close by highlighting promising avenues for future research on digital convergence.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Entrepreneurial Support Systems in the Digital Era: A Taxonomy of Digital Company Builders
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis, US
Kauffman Best Paper Award

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New venture creation is at the core of entrepreneurship and regarded as the source of innovations and new employment. However, despite the potential, that digitization bears for innovation and entrepreneurship, the failure rate of start-ups is still very high. In this context, digital company builders (DCBs) are becoming increasingly important as a new form of entrepreneurial support. Based on a multiple case study with ten DCBs we iteratively developed a taxonomy consisting of 13 dimensions, which describe how such organizations provide what kind of support to whom. Based on this taxonomy, we further grouped the cases into four main types of digital company building. These results may provide researchers a tool to systematically compare different entrepreneurial support systems, help both entrepreneurs and incumbents decide which support system is best suited to their individual needs, and furthermore be useful to the owners of DCBs themselves in their strategic positioning.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Digital Innovation Entrepreneurship: A Review and Research Agenda
Proceedings of the 82nd Academy of Management Conference, Seattle, US

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Digital innovation and digital entrepreneurship are two research streams that focus on the intersection of digital technologies with traditional entrepreneurship or innovation processes, respectively. In this sense, both streams can cross-fertilize each other when it comes to theorizing about digital technologies and their distinct characteristics in the context of entrepreneurship. However, recent studies show that there seems to be a large gap between these two fields of research. By analyzing 86 articles from four different disciplines, this review synthesizes the current knowledge on the intersection of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation through a digital technology-perspective. The contribution of this paper is three-fold: (1) Providing an overview of current knowledge about the relationship between digital entrepreneurship, digital innovation and digital technology, (2) Building a framework of digital innovation entrepreneurship, which describes how digital entrepreneurs engage in continuous digital innovation through the use of digital technology, and (3) identifying avenues that guide future research.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Designing Scaled-agile Organizations: A Taxonomy of Design Criteria
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nuernberg, Germany

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Scaled-agile organizations (SAOs) have emerged as a popular response to the rapid digital transformation of entire industries. However, we currently lack a conceptual understanding of potential design choices of SAOs and calls for effective organizational structures remain only partially answered. Hence, we seek to answer the question of how different designs affect the implementation of SAOs in incumbent organizations. We do this by developing a taxonomy following the approach by Nickerson et al. and based on data from six cases studies. Our findings provide a taxonomy that identifies a set of eight design criteria across two levels. The taxonomy advances our understanding of the different SAO designs and helps to increase the conceptual clarity of SAOs. We provide a valuable basis for further research and supply practical insights.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2022)
Organizational Identity in the Digital Era
Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawaii

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The perception of an organization is largely based on its identity, which determines how it is expected to act. Yet, digital technology often creates situations where organizations experience conflicting demands from different stakeholders. Over time, organizations are there-fore forced to take actions that may not be consistent with their identity and mission, and must find ways to pursue multiple - sometimes conflicting - goals simulta-neously. Our study examines how organizations frame their identity and discusses how different framings may help addressing different needs while remaining con-sistent with the initial identity. Our findings allow us to contribute to extant literature by: (1) Identifying differences in the framing of organizational identities with re-gard to focus on Purpose, Strategic Boundaries, Value Propositions, and Value Statements. (2) Discussing the implications of our findings for the current literature dealing with the "identity-challenging" nature of digital technology. (3) Outlining promising research questions for future research.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2021)
Scaling Agility: How Organizations Balance Tensions in Scaled-agile Organizations
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract
Scaled-agile organizations (SAOs) have emerged as a response by incumbent organizations to take on digital transformation efforts. However, these structures come with challenges, especially paradoxical tensions that need to be addressed. Therefore, we employ an exploratory common process case study series design to answer the following research questions: Which tensions underlie SAOs and how can these tensions best be balanced? We identify eight tensions on three levels and along two dimensions and show preliminary resolution strategies to manage these tensions. With this, we seek to shed light on how SAOs can be designed to minimize tensions and maximize their impact on strategic agility. In doing so, we provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.

Hund, A., Graser, H., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Balancing Organizational Identity through Mission Statements: A Topic Modeling Analysis
Proceedings of the 81st Academy of Management Conference, A Virtual Experience

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Organizational identities define how organizations are perceived inside and outside the organ-izational boundaries. Because organizational identity is deeply embedded in an organization's routines and processes, a continuous identity provides stability, whereas changes in organiza-tional identity are risky and difficult to manage. Yet, digital innovation leads to frequent changes in the external environment, resulting in conflicting requirements and the need to manage changes in the organizational identity. To do so, organizations therefore rely on narra-tives such as mission statements to communicate and balance their identity in the face of fre-quent change and often conflicting demands. We examine the mission statements of the top 1000 R&D spenders and uncover 18 topics that are part of such narratives. We discuss our findings in the context of research on digital innovation and conclude by identifying promising avenues for future research.

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., Legl, S., and Holotiuk, F. (2021)
How Digital Innovation Labs Use Knowledge: Access Strategies and Recombination Paths
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA
(Research in Progress)

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Current research on digital innovation mainly focuses on the recombination of digital and physical components, yet little attention is given to the recombination of knowledge. Since digital technology enables access to virtually unlimited amounts of knowledge, we explore the strategies used by Digital Innovation Labs to access different types of knowledge and uncover five distinct knowledge recombination paths. Based on our results we develop seven propositions that address the role of different types of knowledge involved in recombination. In doing so, we take a first step toward unraveling the pathways of knowledge recombination and highlight the importance of knowledge recombination for future research on digital innovation.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2021)
Towards a Conceptual Model of Digital Innovation Success
Proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Virtual Event, Germany

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Although digital innovation (‘DI’) is a popular research field in these days, when it comes to innovation success, it has not yet been properly grounded in theory. Accordingly, there are problems in identifying both generic and context-specific critical success factors (CSF) within the innovation process. Existing literature has focused mainly on the development of dynamic capabilities. We argue that to build digital innovation capabilities, an organization must first understand and support the actions of those who are actively developing DI. To uncover specific actions that constitute CSFs within every dimension of the digital innovation process, we follow a multiple case study design with seven companies from different industries. Here, we build upon the ‘digital innovation framework’ which defines the process of creating DI across four dimensions (initiate, develop, implement, exploit). Based on these case studies, we build a conceptual model consisting of digital innovation actions, critical success factors and contingency factors. The proposed model serves as a starting point for future research, which should focus on a detailed quantitative investigation of the cause-effect relationships and the contingency factors to validate our propositions.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Governing the Competing Concerns of Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Hyderabad, India

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Digital innovation creates four competing concerns in which the changes necessary to pursue digital innovation are opposed to existing logics and routines within a firm. Re-viewing extant research that highlights IT governance mechanisms as powerful tool to manage such tensions, we identify 41 governance mechanisms related to innovation. This allows us to discuss in detail which governance mechanisms help managing specific com-peting concerns of digital innovation. We close by developing six research questions that highlight promising avenues for future research on digital innovation governance.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Achieving Digital-enabled Strategic Agility Through Resolving Tensions in Scaled-Agile Organizations
Proceedings of the EJIS Special Issue Workshop (Pre-AMCIS Workshop), Salt Lake City, USA
(Research in Progress)

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Digital Company Builders - Exploring a new Phenomenon of Start-up Incubation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Digital Innovation, Transformation and Entrepreneurship (DITE), Cologne, Germany
(Research in Progress)

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2019)
Innovating under Uncertainty: Knowledge Recombination in the Digital Era
Proceedings of the Professional Development Workshop (PDW), Munich, Germany

View Abstract
The creation of innovation is one of the central reasons why organizations exist. Proponents of the knowledge-based view argue that especially the ability to recombine knowledge is crucial for the creation of innovation. Today, digital technology is deeply embedded in most organizational processes and market offerings, which has enabled new ways for organizations to access knowledge from within and outside the organizational boundaries. Yet, heterogeneous knowledge is more difficult to recombine. To successfully recombine heterogeneous knowledge, organizations create digital innovation labs (DILs) to foster digital innovation. By studying DILs we are able to provide several contributions: (1) a more granular understanding of knowledge recombination in an increasingly digitized environment. We find that knowledge recombination encompasses several phases, in which different types of knowledge are prioritized. (2) Insights into how DILs must be set up in order to enable knowledge recombination. (3) Identification of specific mechanisms, which are used for different purposes during different phases of recombination.

Hund, A., Holotiuk, F., Wagner, H., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Knowledge Management in the Digital Era: How Digital Innovation Labs Facilitate Knowledge Recombination
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala

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Knowledge is widely regarded as a crucial organizational resource. In the pursuit of finding novel solutions to problems, organizations combine and re-combine knowledge and resources in different ways. This ultimately leads to innovation, which often is viewed as the ultimate reason d'être for organizations. While there exists a rich literature strand on knowledge management, the pervasive digitalization of entire industries creates new challenges. Different areas of knowledge are converging and organizations struggle with managing the rapidly increasing amount of heterogeneous knowledge. An increasingly popular approach to master the challenges of knowledge creation and recombination in the arena of digital innovation is the creation of Digital Innovation Labs (DIL). Although DILs provide a promising approach to the current challenges of innovating in a digital environment, we have only limited insights about DILs. To uncover how DILs facilitate knowledge management and recombination we conducted several case studies in different industries. Our results show how knowledge enters the DIL, how knowledge is applied and recombined and how knowledge is exchanged between units. Most importantly, we identify six key mechanisms that DILs use to master the challenge of knowledge management and innovation in a digital era.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
The Creation of Digital Innovation: Internal Reorganization, External Networks and Organizational Knowledge
Proceedings of the 79th Academy of Management Conference, Boston, MA, USA

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Digital innovation already disrupted numerous industries and organizations are challenged to align their innovation efforts with the new reality of a digitized environment. We examine how internal reorganization and the external network of an organization are related to organizational knowledge and the eventual creation of digital innovation. To develop digital innovation, firms tap a variety of heterogeneous backgrounds to exploit the ease with which different knowledge fields can be accessed and recombined in a digitized environment. Therefore, the actors involved in the development process come from different sources from within and without the firm as the inclusion of digital technology challenges previously non-digital organizational innovation logics. We develop a conceptual model, which takes the characteristics of digital innovation into account.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Organizational Reconfiguration and Digital Innovation Success: A Review and Novel Perspectives
Proceedings of the JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, CA, USA
(Research in Progress)

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2018)
Organizational Reconfiguration and Knowledge Recombination for Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the Academy of Management Specialized Conference on Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy, Surrey, UK

View Abstract
We address how organizational reconfiguration and external knowledge leverage is related to a firms' knowledge recombination ability and digital innovation success. To develop digital inno-vation, firms tap a variety of heterogeneous backgrounds to exploit the ease with which different knowledge fields can be represented as digital artifacts. We conceptualize that firms need to be aware of a fluid and dynamic recombination space that faces frequent adaptions and great time pressures incurred by customer demand. Therefore, the actors involved in the development process come from different sources from within and without the firm as the inclusion of digital technology challenges previously non-digital organizational innovation logics. We further theorize that a climate conducive to collaboration within the recombination space motivates all actors to engage in knowledge recombination.

Sonstige

Holotiuk, F., Beimborn, D., Hund, A., Wagner, H., Frey, J., and Moormann, J. (2020)
Digital Innovation Labs - Developing Digital Innovation to Accelerate Digital Transformation