Cooperation Between Performance and Innovation Engine: An Exploratory Study of Digital Innovation Labs in Family Business

Digital innovation laboratories (DILs) constitute a promising approach to supporting a firm’s digital transformation. Whereas the firm’s existent departments, which form the so-called performance engine, can keep focusing on daily operations, the DIL representing the innovation engine executes digital innovation tasks. Cooperation between the performance engine and the innovation engine—including, but not limited to, the continuous exchange of information—is critical for the success of such an organizational setting. As research in this specific field of cooperative organization is still scarce, we employed an explorative case-study approach based on interviews with managers from DILs in family firms. Family business was chosen because it plays a prominent role in the German economy and it shall identify its own best practice in facing the digital future. We investigated on drivers, challenges, and organizational issues for establishing and operating such DILs. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners in family business and may serve as a starting point for further research to examine differences between DILs in family and non-family business.