Management in the Age of Digital Business Complexity

287 Pages·2021·9.873 MB·English

by  Bill McKelvey

Management in the Age of Digital
Business Complexity
Management in the Age of Digital Business Complexity focuses on how the digital
age is changing management and vastly speeding up complexity dynamics.
The recent coevolution of technologies has dramatically changed in just a few
years how people and firms learn, communicate, and behave. Consequently,
the process of how firms coevolve and the speed at which they coevolve has
been dramatically changed in the digital age, and managerial methods are
lagging way behind. Combining his own expertise with that of a number of
specialist and international co-authors, McKelvey conveys how companies that
fall behind digitally can quickly be driven out of business.
The book has been created for academics seeking to upgrade management
thinking into the modern digital age and vastly improve the change capabilities
of firms facing digital-oriented competition.
Bill McKelvey was a Professor of Strategic Organizing and Complexity
Science at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations
and Technology
Developing Digital Governance
South Korea as a Global Digital Government Leader
Choong-sik Chung
Digital Business Models
Perspectives on Monetisation
Adam Jabłoński and Marek Jabłoński
Developing Capacity for Innovation in Complex Systems
Strategy, Organisation and Leadership
Christer Vindeløv-Lidzélius
How is Digitalization Affecting Agri-food?
New Business Models, Strategies and Organizational Forms
Edited by Maria Carmela Annosi and Federica Brunetta
Social Innovation of New Ventures
Achieving Social Inclusion and Sustainability in Emerging Economies and
Developing Countries
Marcela Ramírez-Pasillas, Vanessa Ratten and Hans Lundberg
Sustainable Innovation
Strategy, Process and Impact
Edited by Cosmina L. Voinea, Nadine Roijakkers and Ward Ooms
Management in the Age of Digital Business Complexity
Edited by Bill McKelvey with Renata Kaminska, María Paz Salmador, and
Nadine Escoffier
Citizen Activities in Energy Transition
User Innovation, New Communities, and the Shaping of a Sustainable Future
Sampsa Hyysalo
For more information about this series, please visit: www .r outle dge .c om /
Ro utled ge -St udies -in -I nnova tion- Organ izati ons -a nd -Te chnol ogy /b ook -
s eries /RIOT
Management in the Age of
Digital Business Complexity
Edited by Bill McKelvey with Renata
Kaminska, María Paz Salmador, and
Nadine Escoffier
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Bill McKelvey; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Bill McKelvey to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McKelvey, Bill, editor.
Title: Management in the age of digital business complexity/edited by
Bill McKelvey.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge,
2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020055334 (print) | LCCN 2020055335 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Electronic commerce–Management. | Organizational
change.
Classification: LCC HF5548.32 .M338 2021 (print) |
LCC HF5548.32 (ebook) | DDC 658/.05–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn .loc .gov /2020055334
LC ebook record available at https://lccn .loc .gov /2020055335
ISBN: 978-0-367-23074-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-01172-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-27821-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Bill McKelvey was a complex Complexity scholar, a brilliant
professor, a great intellectual, and an incredible researcher.
We would like to express our utmost gratitude to Professor Bill
McKelvey for sharing his passion about research and collaboration.
The fact that he collaborated with people from all around the world
with different cultures and backgrounds made his research projects
interesting and exciting. He was incredibly generous with his time—
always available to discuss a project, always challenging us to think
in new ways and always open to new research ideas.
His guidance shaped and continues to inform our work from how
to write an introduction to what many of us referred to as the
“McKelvey effect.” We still can hear him say, “are you adding a
brick to the wall (doing incremental work) or are you building a
new wall?” His contribution in pushing the research forward in our
field will remain a legacy for future generations.
Professor Bill McKelvey had a positive impact on our lives and we
feel very lucky that somehow, somewhere we have crossed his path.
He will be deeply missed and will always be remembered as an
example of generosity, dedication, passion for his work and above
all as an amazing and supporting mentor and friend.
It has been an honor collaborating with him!
Cera Oh
Tammy L. Madsen
María Paz Salmador
Renata Kaminska
Elena Goryunova
Nadine Escoffier

Contents
List of contributors ix
1 Managing the consequences of digital networks and
accelerated complexity dynamics in digital business ecosystems 1
BILL MCKELVEY
2 Rescuing economics and management from Darwin’s
evolution via death-and-replacement by the Baldwin Effect:
learning during a lifetime 48
BILL MCKELVEY AND CERA OH
3 Why Lamarck dominates Darwin in explaining organizational
change and evolution 110
TAMMY L. MADSEN AND BILL MCKELVEY
4 “Simple rules” for improving digital corporate IQ: basic
lessons from complexity science 136
BILL MCKELVEY
5 Digital dynamic capabilities 153
MARÍA PAZ SALMADOR, RENATA KAMINSKA, AND BILL MCKELVEY
6 Understanding value conflict between business and society: a
new perspective from neuro and complexity sciences 182
ELENA GORYUNOVA AND BILL MCKELVEY
7 A digital perspective about how complexity science pushes
firms into the stochastic frontier 216
MARÍA PAZ SALMADOR AND BILL MCKELVEY
viii Contents
8 Using Crowd wisdom via crowdsourcing: proof of concept
of an efficient digital strategy in the age of digital business
complexity 242
NADINE ESCOFFIER AND BILL MCKELVEY
Index 269
Contributors
Nadine Escoffier is an expert in crowdsourcing in the entertainment industry.
She co-led with Professor Bill McKelvey a crowdsourcing research project in
the entertainment industry which was mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter
and allowed to publish four articles, among which one was first on the list of
most read articles of 2017 in the International Journal of Innovation Management.
This research project was also presented in conferences such as the World
Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation
(co-organized in 2011 by the University of California, Berkeley, US;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US; The Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology, Hong Kong; and RWTH Aachen University,
Germany); the Academy of Management, US (2011); the UCLA Bruce
Mallen Scholars and Practitioners in Motion Picture Industry Studies (co-
organized by the University of California Los Angeles, US [2011]) and Open
and User Innovation (co-organized in 2012 by Harvard Business School,
US, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US). She is now working
on a research project mixing crowdsourcing and Blockchain technology.
Elena Goryunova has a PhD in strategy and sustainable development. Her
research interests include CSR, sustainable development, innovation, com-
plexity science and moral neuroscience. In her PhD thesis, she explored
the link between CSR and innovation based on an integrative approach
of complexity science. She has presented her research at the Academy of
Management annual meetings in Orlando, US (2013), and Vancouver,
Canada (2015), as well as at the International Association for Business and
Society (IABS) Conference 2014 in Sydney, Australia, and at The Alliance
for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) 2014 in London, Canada.
She obtained an MRes in management science, strategy and sustainable
development from Institute of Administration and Enterprises (IAE) Aix
en Provence, France, and an MA in world economics from St. Petersburg’s
Institute of International Economic Affairs, Economy and Law, Russia. She
is a content creator for online education who is interested in the cross-
disciplinary inquiry for sustainability. She believes that cross-fertilization
between natural and social sciences will provide us with a deeper insight
into how to design innovative and socially responsible organizations for a
better, more just, and sustainable world.