Table 3 Paradoxical tensions and... | Emerald Publishing

Table 3

Paradoxical tensions and representative narratives for Stage 2

Level/interface	Paradoxical tensions	Competing demands	Exemplary narratives
Project team – business unit interface	Belonging conflicts between the team and the collective identity	Sustaining the new advanced services values/identifying with firm’s product mindset	“Let’s show this slide here, which speaks so much that it amazes us too… it’s the 5-year situation… [he shows a slide with a progression of boxes from black to red to green to blue over time and stable on the blue since the end of 2018]… chromatically it makes a good impression, after a few months we were in crisis… then things improved a lot” (BU Servitization Manager, SM1)
Business unit	Organizing tension between competing designs and processes to achieve a desired outcome	Designing service processes for empowerment and flexibility/fostering direction and control for replicability	“We worked internally with the help of this external organization, they already knew our PLCs, knew the machines… we decided to start with them, and together we managed all the relevant architectural decisions” (BU Servitization Manager, SM1)
Business unit – corporate interface	Organizing tension between competing designs and processes to achieve a desired outcome	Maintain product business operations efficiency/explore advanced service-oriented processes	“…certain procedures are missing… if you ask someone in the purchasing office regarding, for example, a spare part, ‘try to overhaul it’, or ‘find someone to overhaul it for you’, or ‘repaint the part’, he tells you to buy a new One, which he does routinely: he places his order, perhaps an agreement in a framework contract, and it takes a minute to do the job… these are the frictions to move from a traditional to an advanced service” (BU Technical Director, TD1)
Business unit –ecosystem interface	Organizing tension between competing designs and processes to achieve a desired outcome (customers and suppliers)	Allocate internal digital capabilities/leverage external digital capabilities	“As regards the conflicts and synergies with the old business model […] there is a basic concern, namely that customers with complex production systems cannot have several interlocutors when fully operational. This leads us to act as a platform for horizontality, because we have competition from an external maintenance company, to which some of our customers have already given the go-ahead, even if it is a poor solution compared to our service. So I have to become the efficiency manager of my client’s entire plant” (BU General Manager, HD4)

Level/interface	Paradoxical tensions	Competing demands	Exemplary narratives
Project team – business unit interface	Belonging conflicts between the team and the collective identity	Sustaining the new advanced services values/identifying with firm’s product mindset	“Let’s show this slide here, which speaks so much that it amazes us too… it’s the 5-year situation… [he shows a slide with a progression of boxes from black to red to green to blue over time and stable on the blue since the end of 2018]… chromatically it makes a good impression, after a few months we were in crisis… then things improved a lot” (BU Servitization Manager, SM1)
Business unit	Organizing tension between competing designs and processes to achieve a desired outcome	Designing service processes for empowerment and flexibility/fostering direction and control for replicability	“We worked internally with the help of this external organization, they already knew our PLCs, knew the machines… we decided to start with them, and together we managed all the relevant architectural decisions” (BU Servitization Manager, SM1)
Business unit – corporate interface	Organizing tension between competing designs and processes to achieve a desired outcome	Maintain product business operations efficiency/explore advanced service-oriented processes	“…certain procedures are missing… if you ask someone in the purchasing office regarding, for example, a spare part, ‘try to overhaul it’, or ‘find someone to overhaul it for you’, or ‘repaint the part’, he tells you to buy a new One, which he does routinely: he places his order, perhaps an agreement in a framework contract, and it takes a minute to do the job… these are the frictions to move from a traditional to an advanced service” (BU Technical Director, TD1)
Business unit –ecosystem interface	Organizing tension between competing designs and processes to achieve a desired outcome (customers and suppliers)	Allocate internal digital capabilities/leverage external digital capabilities	“As regards the conflicts and synergies with the old business model […] there is a basic concern, namely that customers with complex production systems cannot have several interlocutors when fully operational. This leads us to act as a platform for horizontality, because we have competition from an external maintenance company, to which some of our customers have already given the go-ahead, even if it is a poor solution compared to our service. So I have to become the efficiency manager of my client’s entire plant” (BU General Manager, HD4)

Source(s): Authors’ own work