So, What Happens Next? A Qualitative Cross-case Study Examining Organizational Post-adoption Strategic Responses

Sammanfattning

While innovation diffusion research has extensively examined how innovations spread and are adopted, significantly less attention has been paid to what organizations strategically do once peak adoption has been reached and markets become saturated. The purpose of this study is to explore how Swedish organizations navigate the strategic tensions that arise in this post- adoption phase, guided by the research question “How do Swedish MNC organizations strategically respond to saturated markets in a phase of post-adoption?”. To answer the research question, a qualitative cross-case study was conducted examining corporate annual reports from three Swedish MNCs: Electrolux, Tetra Pak, and Thule Group. An abductive thematic analysis was applied, drawing on innovation diffusion theory, product life cycle theory, and dynamic capabilities as the primary theoretical framework. Based on this, seven thematic categories of post-adoption strategic responses were identified: efficiency, geographic expansion, innovation renewal, portfolio broadening, repositioning, development of capabilities, and sustainability- driven renewal. The findings show that post-adoption strategic management requires organizations to balance exploitation and exploration, and that proactive sensing of market shifts helps differentiate strategic outcomes. The study contributes a proposed framework meant to aid in post-adoption strategic management and extends dynamic capabilities theory by showing that sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring operate on a spectrum from proactive to reactive in practice.