The level of technological diversification is a key determinant of organisations’ ability to respond to change and to shape innovation. Over the last years, an increasing body of knowledge has investigated the antecedents, contingencies and performance consequences of technological diversification. While most research finds increased diversification is associated with higher organisational performance, the conditions under which such effects are particularly pronounced are less clear. This meta-analysis synthesises 110 independent samples that collectively cover observations of 133,814 organisations between 1950 to 2018. Our results show that the technological diversification-performance relationship is positive, yet significantly moderated by the type of technological diversification and the macro-environment the organisation operates in.

In this study, we advance two mechanisms that lead firms to engage in emerging digital technologies, namely, the dominant coalition's motivation and its ability to deploy the resources needed to pursue such motivation. Building on the performance and strategic development, and on board capital literature streams, we construe prior economic performance as a proxy of the firm's motivation, and human and social board capital as proxies of the firm's ability, analyzing their effect on adding emerging digital technologies, such as Internet of Things solutions, to the firm's resource base. Longitudinal analyses on a panel of Fortune 500 manufacturing firms between 2002 and 2012 reveal that these mechanisms highlight two important aspects of firm influence that can shape its digital technology behavior, explaining the heterogeneity and variability in firms engaging in emerging digital technologies.

This study examines the impact of family management on digital transformation with specific regard to the firm’s development of Internet of Things (IoT) innovations. Drawing on the distinctive characteristics of firms with family managers, such as the focus on family‐centered noneconomic goals, long tenure, emotional ties to existing assets, and rigid mental models, it hypothesizes that increasing family involvement in the top management team is negatively related to the development of IoT innovations that are distant from a firm’s existing technology base (i.e., exploratory IoT innovations) compared to exploitative IoT innovations. Further, the study proposes that the firm’s degree of technological diversification, especially in unrelated forms, reinforces this relationship. The longitudinal analysis between 2002 and 2013 on a sample of publicly traded German firms allows us to test our hypotheses from the beginning of the emergence of the IoT concept. Our findings show that due to the particular characteristics of their managers, family‐managed firms do not welcome the risks related to exploratory IoT innovations, and the benefit of risk diversification from technological diversification is lower than the cost of abandoning family‐centered goals. As our results imply that the involvement of family managers constrains the development of exploratory IoT innovation, the top management team composition in firms that intend to be at the forefront of the digital transformation should be accurately designed by avoiding a high proportion of family members.

Building on resource-based theories of the firm, this paper tests the resource-action-performance model in the context of digitalization. To do so, we consider the impact of digital Internet of Things (IoT) technology on firm performance. Further, we look at how family involvement in the firm moderates our main relationship. Our results of a panel data regression with 246 firms from Germany, France, Japan and the US between 2007 and 2013 show that IoT technology has a positive impact on firm performance. Family involvement in the firm attenuates the effect of IoT technology. Our findings extend research and theory on resource utilization by adding a digital resource perspective. We propose that a dynamic view of resource-based theory is needed to put a stronger emphasize on resource adaptation during technological paradigm changes. Furthermore, our findings suggest that established theory on family firms and innovation need to reconsider technology context. The specific properties of IoT technology affect the way firms utilize their resources.

Technological diversification has been linked to a wide range of phenomena, including financial performance, innovation, product diversification and inter-organizational relationships. This is the first systematic review of this literature and provides an overview of its historical development and conceptual foundations. It finds that the role of contingency factors impacting the positive relationship between technological diversification and financial performance needs further exploration. Also, it finds that the research on the links between technological diversification and inter-organizational relationships requires consolidation. This paper suggests three avenues for further research. First, it sets out an agenda for identifying the antecedents of technological diversification. Second, it identifies contextual factors that could shape the relationship between technological diversification and performance. Third, it argues that technological diversification research must engage with contemporary technological and organizational developments such as digital organizations, open boundaries and networks.

While the impact of businesses in society is a crucial management topic nowadays, the efforts of corporations towards improving lives have been deemed mediocre and have received scant scholarly attention. This paper theoretically draws largely on the stakeholder theory and the concepts of corporate citizenship and creating shared value to show that for-profit businesses have a role to play as well as a responsibility towards the local community or society as a whole. It empirically employs the case of the Austrian Railway Corporation through a detailed systematic process to explicate the corporation’s intervention and impact in a recent geopolitical crisis (The European Refugee Crisis 2015). Findings show that corporations are capable of improving lives by virtue of intervening in societal issues that intersect with their business interests and practices through the lens of four pertinent actions: by acting with a care for humanity, acting as a tie between many entities, exhibiting leadership, and undertaking decisive but pragmatic decisions. Overall, this paper primarily enhances understanding of the role of corporations in societal challenges pertinent to improving lives, particularly the destitute.