How Instacart Leveraged Digital Resources for Strategic Advantage
Ting Li, Yolande E. Chan, Nadège Levallet
This study analyzes the grocery delivery service Instacart to demonstrate how companies can strategically manage digital resources to gain a competitive edge in a turbulent market. It uses the Instacart case to develop a framework that explains how to navigate the evolving business landscape, create value, and overcome challenges to capturing that value. The paper concludes with five practical recommendations for managers aiming to thrive in the digital world.
Problem
In today's digital economy, businesses have access to powerful and versatile digital resources, but many executives struggle to leverage them effectively. Companies often face difficulties in balancing the creation of value for their entire ecosystem (partners, customers) with capturing sufficient value for their own firm. This study addresses the challenge of how to orchestrate digital resources to achieve sustained strategic advantage amidst fast-emerging competitors and complex partnership dynamics.
Outcome
- Instacart's success is attributed to four key achievements: simultaneously evolving its digital infrastructure and business model, maintaining 'technology ambidexterity' by both exploiting existing tech and exploring new innovations, dynamically managing knowledge flows from its vast data, and building a flexible relationship portfolio with customers, shoppers, and retail partners. - Based on the case, the study offers five key actions for managers: 1) Take bold risks, as there are no predefined limits in the digital world; 2) Build resilience by viewing failures as learning experiments; 3) Leverage third-party services to fill internal knowledge and infrastructure gaps; 4) View rivals and partners as a continuum, as these relationships can change quickly; 5) Create future opportunities by making strategic investments in new ventures.
Host: Welcome to A.I.S. Insights, powered by Living Knowledge. I’m your host, Anna Ivy Summers. Host: In today’s rapidly changing digital world, how can a business not just survive, but thrive? We’re looking at that question through the lens of a fascinating study from MIS Quarterly Executive, titled "How Instacart Leveraged Digital Resources for Strategic Advantage". Host: The study analyzes the grocery delivery giant to create a framework for how any company can gain a competitive edge in a turbulent market. And to help us unpack it, we have our expert analyst, Alex Ian Sutherland. Welcome, Alex. Expert: Great to be here, Anna. Host: Alex, let’s start with the big picture. What’s the core problem this study tackles? It seems like every company has access to digital tools, but not everyone is a winner. Expert: That’s exactly it. The problem isn’t a lack of technology; it’s the struggle to use it effectively. Many executives find themselves in a tough spot. They need to create value for their entire ecosystem—customers, partners, suppliers—but they also need to capture enough of that value to make their own business profitable and sustainable. Expert: It’s a delicate balancing act. The study points out that in the digital economy, you face fast-emerging competitors and complex partnerships, so getting that balance right is critical for survival. Host: So it's not just about having a great app, it's about the whole strategy behind it. How did the researchers approach this? How did they get inside a company like Instacart to understand its strategy? Expert: They essentially became business detectives. The research was a deep-dive case study of Instacart. The authors analyzed press releases, public interviews with executives, and existing case materials. They mapped out the company's journey and strategic decisions, and to ensure accuracy, they even consulted with an academic researcher who was actively working with Instacart on analytics projects. Host: That’s quite thorough. So after all that digging, what did they find? What are the key ingredients to Instacart's success? Expert: The study boils it down to four key achievements. First, they didn't just build a business model and then add technology to it. Their digital infrastructure and their business model grew up together, co-evolving. Host: What does that look like in practice? Expert: Well, by outsourcing the physical assets—the warehouses and inventory—to local grocers, Instacart could focus all its energy on building a superior digital platform. The tech and the business model were perfectly in sync from day one. Host: Okay, that makes sense. What was the second achievement? Expert: They call it 'technology ambidexterity'. It's a fantastic term. It means they were skilled at doing two things at once: exploiting their existing tech to make it better and more efficient, while also exploring brand new, innovative technologies. Expert: So, they were constantly tweaking the app for a smoother user experience, but they also made big moves like acquiring other platform companies to offer new services to their retail partners. It’s about perfecting the present while building the future. Host: And the last two? I imagine data plays a big role. Expert: Absolutely. The third achievement was managing dynamic knowledge flows. Instacart uses its vast stream of data on orders, deliveries, and customer habits to optimize its logistics engine and predict shopping trends. This knowledge is a core competitive asset. Expert: And finally, they built a dynamic relationship portfolio. They understand that in the digital world, a partner today might be a rival tomorrow. When Amazon, an early partner, bought Whole Foods, Instacart didn't panic. They quickly established a new partnership with Walmart to counter the threat. It's about being strategically agile. Host: This is all a brilliant analysis of Instacart, but let's get to the bottom line for our listeners. Why does this matter for a business leader in, say, manufacturing or finance? What are the practical takeaways? Expert: This is the most important part. The study offers five clear, actionable recommendations for any manager. First, take bold risks. The digital world doesn't have the same physical constraints, so don't box in your thinking. Expert: Second, build resilience by viewing failures as experiments. Not every initiative will succeed, but every failure provides data and a lesson. Instacart constantly experimented to find what worked. Host: So it’s a culture of learning, not a fear of failure. What else? Expert: Third, leverage third-party services to fill gaps. Instacart didn’t build its own massive server farms; it used Amazon Web Services to scale quickly. You don’t have to do everything in-house. Expert: Fourth, view rivals and partners as a continuum. The lines are blurry and can change overnight. And finally, create future opportunities by making small, strategic investments in new ventures, whether that's acquiring a small startup or even just its talented team. Host: So, if I were to summarize, it’s not just about having the right digital tools. It's about orchestrating them—making your technology, your business model, your data, and your partnerships work together as a single, agile system. Expert: That's the perfect summary, Anna. It’s about orchestration, not just implementation. Host: Alex, thank you for making this complex study so clear and actionable for us. Expert: My pleasure. Host: And thanks to all of you for tuning in to A.I.S. Insights. We’ll see you next time.
Instacart, digital resources, strategic advantage, platform strategy, value creation, value capture, digital transformation
