The influence mechanism of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises from the perspective of organizational complexity: A force field analysis

Financial transformation is a major organizational change that enterprises face today. Under the influence of information technologies, financial shared service mode has become a better option for enterprise financial transformation. Financial shared service mode has a positive or negative influence on the competitive advantage of enterprises under the promotion of internal and external factors. At the same time, the ever-changing complex environment makes the influence of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises more uncertain.

Based on organizational complexity theory, this paper uses both a multi-case study approach and a force field analysis to explore the influence mechanism of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises and constructs the force field model of the influence mechanism. Under the premise of being influenced by the driving forces and restraining forces in the force field model, this paper focuses on the moderating forces associated with organizational complexity on the relationship between financial shared service mode and competitive advantage.

The research shows, it is evident that the driving forces and restraining forces in the force field model exert dominant and restrictive effects on competitive advantage respectively through the financial shared service mode. It is vital to find that organizational complexity factors in the force filed model have moderating effect on the influence relationship between competitive advantage and financial shared service mode. Enterprises need to seek solutions to deal with organizational complexity factors under the joint influence of driving forces and restraining forces to maximize the positive influence of financial shared service mode on the competitive advantage of enterprises.