The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt?
This paper examines the emerging contours of a new organizational form, in which firms move beyond the cooperative pacts of alliances to a radicalized, aggressive co-optation of external assets. Taking our point of departure from the literature on the “networked” firm, we point to an alternative to...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Bologna
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Sociologica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8364 |
| _version_ | 1811196625289216000 |
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| author | Elizabeth Anne Watkins David Stark |
| author_facet | Elizabeth Anne Watkins David Stark |
| author_sort | Elizabeth Anne Watkins |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper examines the emerging contours of a new organizational form, in which firms move beyond the cooperative pacts of alliances to a radicalized, aggressive co-optation of external assets. Taking our point of departure from the literature on the “networked” firm, we point to an alternative to the make, buy, or cooperate decision: in the Möbius form, firms co-opt resources, unsecured by any alliances, formal or informal. Some companies are brazen in their co-optation, leveraging external assets so thoroughly that they might well be considered a core part of the firm. Enabled by developments in computing technologies, such co-optation challenges traditional models of organizational identity. These fluid boundaries recall the Möbius topological model, which we take as the metaphor for this nascent organizational form. We chart this new behavior by discussing a range of firm activities, including the functions of marketing, research and development, and managerial decision-making, as they are replaced with assets co-opted from other firms in the private sector, government agencies, and lastly the firm’s own users. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:02:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2b80ff9ed5554f0a97ac41901891dd6d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1971-8853 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:02:01Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | University of Bologna |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sociologica |
| spelling | doaj.art-2b80ff9ed5554f0a97ac41901891dd6d2022-12-22T03:54:25ZengUniversity of BolognaSociologica1971-88532018-07-01121658010.6092/issn.1971-8853/83647330The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt?Elizabeth Anne Watkins0David Stark1Columbia UniversityDepartment of Sociology, Columbia University; Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick, UKThis paper examines the emerging contours of a new organizational form, in which firms move beyond the cooperative pacts of alliances to a radicalized, aggressive co-optation of external assets. Taking our point of departure from the literature on the “networked” firm, we point to an alternative to the make, buy, or cooperate decision: in the Möbius form, firms co-opt resources, unsecured by any alliances, formal or informal. Some companies are brazen in their co-optation, leveraging external assets so thoroughly that they might well be considered a core part of the firm. Enabled by developments in computing technologies, such co-optation challenges traditional models of organizational identity. These fluid boundaries recall the Möbius topological model, which we take as the metaphor for this nascent organizational form. We chart this new behavior by discussing a range of firm activities, including the functions of marketing, research and development, and managerial decision-making, as they are replaced with assets co-opted from other firms in the private sector, government agencies, and lastly the firm’s own users.https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8364organizational formco-optationfirm boundariesorganizational innovationeconomic sociologycrowd workdigital laborplatformcultural and digital economy |
| spellingShingle | Elizabeth Anne Watkins David Stark The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt? Sociologica organizational form co-optation firm boundaries organizational innovation economic sociology crowd work digital labor platform cultural and digital economy |
| title | The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt? |
| title_full | The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt? |
| title_fullStr | The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt? |
| title_short | The Möbius Organizational Form: Make, Buy, Cooperate, or Co-opt? |
| title_sort | mobius organizational form make buy cooperate or co opt |
| topic | organizational form co-optation firm boundaries organizational innovation economic sociology crowd work digital labor platform cultural and digital economy |
| url | https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8364 |
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