Together Alone? Mastering paradoxes within inter-organizational business model innovation settings

Introductory note: The world is rich in paradox, tension and contradiction (Jarzabkowski, Lê, & Van de Ven, 2013). For this reason, the capacity to handle paradox is being presented as an important management competence. With this series, the European Forum on Paradox and Plurality aims to contribute to the development of paradox management competences by producing teaching materials on management tension and paradox. The case: Velasca is a shoe making company. But a closer examination reveals a digital native vertical brand (DNVB) that disintermediates the leather-footwear industry’s value chain with an innovative direct-to-consumer business model.1 Velasca is a client-centric data-driven company that harnesses organizational design and digital technologies to move made in Italy shoes directly from producer to consumer. By skipping intermediaries (i.e., wholesalers), it can market shoes with a higher quality-price ratio than firms that use conventional distribution chains. From an organizational design standpoint, Velasca currently orchestrates an alliance involving a logistics operator and nine co-located, small-sized artisanal manufacturers.