Hyperspecialization and hyperscaling A resource-based theory of the digital firm
Digital firms tend to be both narrow in their vertical scope and large in their scale. We explain this phenomenon through a theory about how attributes of firms' resource bundles impact their scale and specialization. We posit that highly scalable resource bundles entail significant opportunity cost...
| Authors: | ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Article |
| Publication date: | 2021 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | IE |
| Repository: | Repositorio IE |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.ie.edu:20.500.14417/3575 |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3365 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/3575 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | 53 Ciencias Económicas::5311 Organización y dirección de empresas ODS 8 - Trabajo decente y crecimiento económico ODS 9 - Industria, innovación e infraestructura |
| Summary: | Digital firms tend to be both narrow in their vertical scope and large in their scale. We explain this phenomenon through a theory about how attributes of firms' resource bundles impact their scale and specialization. We posit that highly scalable resource bundles entail significant opportunity costs of integration (vs. outsourcing), which simultaneously drive “hyperspecialization” and “hyperscaling” in digital firms. Using descriptive theory and a formal model, we develop several propositions that align with observed features of digital businesses. We offer a parsimonious modeling framework for resource-based theorizing about highly scalable digital firms, shed light on the phenomenon of digital scaling, and provide insights into the far-reaching ways that technology-enabled resources are reshaping firms in the digital economy. |
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