An Interview with Ting Li
How Instacart Leveraged Digital Resources for Strategic Advantage
How would you describe the overarching concepts behind your article, "How Instacart Leveraged Digital Resources for Strategic Advantage" in the most simplified way?
This article shows that the innovative use of digital resources can produce lucrative returns. Versatile and easily accessible digital resources such as the Internet of Things and Cloud-based solutions have revolutionized how companies do business. Using Instacart as an illustrative case, we demonstrate how companies can adapt to emerging value creation patterns and value capture challenges with a digital mindset.
What was the motivation to speak specifically to this matter?
Companies today are eager to learn from, and collaborate with, innovative startups. For my summer project as a doctoral student, I developed a strategic framework for digital resource management through an in-depth review of the relevant literature. The author team thought it might be a good idea to illustrate the framework with a real case and offer some lessons learned that are easy to implement – and this is the very start of this article.
Who are your collaborators?
I have two co-authors: Dr. Yolande E. Chan and Dr. Nadège Levallet. Yolande is my doctoral supervisor, and Nadege, an alumnus of Queen’s University, contributes insights from a strategic perspective to this piece.
Where are your collaborators located?
Yolande is the Dean and James McGill Professor at Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University (https://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/yolande-e-chan).
Nadège is an Assistant Professor of Management and Information System in the Maine Business School (https://umaine.edu/business/people/nadege-levallet/).
Is this part of an ongoing collaboration?
Yes. At this moment, I have three working projects with Yolande.
Was this research funded by a larger program of research or a large grant?
Yes, the research was funded by a large SSHRC grant.