How the IoT Affects Multibusiness Industrial Companies: IoT Organizational Archetypes

Innovative technologies, including sensors, cloud-based data analytics and artificial intelligence, are altering the logic of how manufacturing companies conduct business. More specifically, the Internet of Things (IoT), and hence the transition from offering
physical products to providing digital solutions, challenges manufacturers’ manner of value creation and value capturing. Against this background, manufacturers are forced to extend their value creation activities beyond the design, production, operation, and
maintenance of complex physical products. Manufacturing companies with multiple business units operating in various industry segments are particularly challenged to realize the potential of IoT. With their diverse set of business activities and their complex IT landscapes, these companies are challenged to implement suitable IoT organizational structures to benefit from effective IS utilization. Based on a multiple case study, we identify six IoT organizational archetypes that depict how multibusiness manufacturing companies allocate and integrate IT capabilities within their organizational structures.
In addition, we investigate a set of six influential factors that drive archetype adoption.