Digital orientation and the hybrid tipping point: Balancing in-person and remote work

At what point does adding more office time start eroding, rather than enhancing, organizational performance? Although remote, hybrid, and on-site work have each been studied in isolation, managers still lack evidence-based guidance on the proper mix of these arrangements for organizational results. Existing research rarely connects work-configuration choices to firm-level performance, nor does it consider how digital capabilities might affect the balance. Guided by socio-technical systems (STS) theory, we analyze 27,451 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across 30 countries to explore whether different intensities of in-person work and their interplay with digital orientation translate into meaningful shifts in revenue growth. By focusing on organizational outcomes rather than individual productivity, our study seeks to uncover strategic inflection points that can inform organizational leaders seeking to navigate the complexities of the post-pandemic business landscape.