Configurational Thinking and Value Creation from Digital Innovation: The Case of Product Lifecycle Management Implementation

Product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms . which consolidate activities across the development lifecycle under a common application umbrella . promise to help companies to address many contemporary challenges in NPD. Yet, as with other enterprise-scale platforms, managers have difficulty deploying PLM. Based on observations from six case studies, we find managers can enhance PLM deployments by employing configurational thinking. This means treating PLM technology as just one part of a larger system of reinforcing elements related to the creation of new business capabilities. We identify two distinct layers of configurational thinking . the mindset layer and the toolset layer . and derive six principles spanning these layers that embody configurational thinking on PLM projects. We conclude by discussing implications of our configurational perspective for research on digital innovation.