[Paper Review] Social and Collaborative Services for Organizations: Back to Requirements

Mayla Alimam, E. Bertin+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jul 31, 2015

Service and Product Innovation19 references3 citations

TL;DR

This paper investigates the alignment between social and collaborative services (SCS) and organizational requirements, particularly coordination needs, in enterprises undergoing servitization. It finds that successful SCS deployment hinges on matching service functionalities to organic organizational structures, while mechanistic organizations can leverage SCS to achieve strategic servitization goals, enhancing value creation and coordination efficiency.

ABSTRACT

Social and collaborative services have widely spread within the enterprises as they play a part in improving productivity and business outcomes. However, the deployment of these services fluctuates between success and failure. This paper intends to assess their deployment and how they can contribute to value creation in different industries. We investigate the relationship between the services' functionalities and the organizational requirement of these services represented by the coordination. We also consider the organizational transformation driven by servitization and emphasize its impact on the act of coordination. We highlight the tight correlation between the functionalities and the requirement in organic forms which suggests a successful deployment in such enterprises. We nonetheless find that, when the servitization is a strategic intent in organizations with mechanistic characteristics, deploying social and collaborative services can contribute to achieving this aim.

Motivation & Objective

• To assess the impact of social and collaborative services (SCS) on value creation across diverse industries.
• To analyze the relationship between SCS functionalities and organizational coordination requirements.
• To explore how servitization influences organizational transformation and coordination practices.
• To identify conditions under which SCS deployment leads to successful organizational outcomes.
• To determine whether SCS can effectively support strategic servitization in mechanistic organizations.

Proposed method

• Conducts a qualitative analysis of SCS deployment in enterprises across multiple industries.
• Examines organizational structures—particularly organic vs. mechanistic—using theoretical frameworks from organizational theory.
• Analyzes the role of coordination as a core organizational requirement influenced by servitization.
• Evaluates SCS functionalities in relation to coordination needs through case-based insights from the Spring Servitization Conference 2015.
• Uses a conceptual model linking SCS features to organizational transformation and value creation.
• Employs a comparative approach to assess SCS effectiveness in different organizational contexts.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How do social and collaborative services align with organizational coordination requirements in enterprises?
• RQ2 In what ways does servitization influence the coordination processes within organizations?
• RQ3 What conditions enable successful deployment of SCS in mechanistic organizations aiming for servitization?
• RQ4 How do organic organizational structures affect the effectiveness of SCS in value creation?
• RQ5 To what extent can SCS contribute to strategic goals such as servitization in traditional industrial firms?

Key findings

• A strong correlation exists between SCS functionalities and organizational coordination needs in organic organizational forms, leading to higher deployment success.
• In mechanistic organizations, SCS can effectively support strategic servitization goals when aligned with coordination requirements.
• Organizations undergoing servitization experience enhanced coordination through SCS, particularly when service functionalities match structural and process needs.
• SCS deployment is more likely to succeed when organizational structures are flexible and collaborative, reflecting organic characteristics.
• The study identifies coordination as a central driver of SCS value creation, especially in service-oriented transformations.
• SCS contribute to improved business outcomes by enabling better information sharing and collaborative decision-making in transformed enterprises.