Performance effects of technology–organization–environment openness, service co-production, and digital-resource readiness: The case of the IT industry

• We examine the role of service co-production in IT industry.
• We adopt a technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework to discuss the effects of TOE openness on firm performance.
• A total of 210 usable IT-service managers were collected from a sample of 750 Taiwanese IT companies.
• Service co-production plays a mediating role in the relationships between openness of organization and environment and firm performance.
• Process reach and richness moderates the relationship between service coproduction and firm performance.

Service co-production has become an influential collaboration. Openness, however, also plays an important role in creating opportunities for superior firm performance that can shape a firm's open-related strategies and decisions. Drawing on a technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework, this study primarily examines the relationships between TOE openness, service co-production, digital-resource readiness, and firm performance. Data were collected from 210 IT companies in Taiwan; IT service managers were selected as the data collection sources. A partial least squares (PLS) was used to address sophisticated data analysis issues. The empirical evidence indicates that the increased openness of both organization and environment can facilitate superior firm performance primarily through improving service co-production. In addition, process reach and richness can enhance the relationship between service co-production and firm performance. The detailed findings offer practical suggestions for IT firms that seek to attain superior firm performance by optimizing limited resources to foster the openness of their corporate culture and invest in collaborative relationships in conjunction with increased service co-production. In addition, IT firms can manage digital process reach and richness to ensure the fulfillment of various needs and strengthen efforts in firm performance through service co-production.