Start Date
11-12-2016 12:00 AM
Description
The diffusion process for IT innovations is seen as encompassing two major activities; field-level actors give meaning to innovations by ‘theorizing’ them; and organization-level actors ‘translate’ them into their own settings. Recent work has highlighted the need for research on the interplay between these practices. In this paper, we explore this interplay through an empirical study of the global spread of the Resource Planning (RP) innovation and its variants (MRP, MRPII, ERP) over time, focussing, in particular, the innovation community, and the design of the innovation itself. Our study highlights the important role played by the bounded nature of the innovation community around RP, and the coherent, if shifting identity, which this innovation maintained over time. These features were seen as central to overcoming the tensions between theorization and translation work, and ultimately ensuring the long-term spread and sustainability of the innovation itself.
Recommended Citation
Scarbrough, Harry and Swan, Jacky, "Unpacking the Dynamics of IT Innovation Diffusion: The Case of Resource Planning" (2016). ICIS 2016 Proceedings. 17.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/ISOrganizations/Presentations/17
Unpacking the Dynamics of IT Innovation Diffusion: The Case of Resource Planning
The diffusion process for IT innovations is seen as encompassing two major activities; field-level actors give meaning to innovations by ‘theorizing’ them; and organization-level actors ‘translate’ them into their own settings. Recent work has highlighted the need for research on the interplay between these practices. In this paper, we explore this interplay through an empirical study of the global spread of the Resource Planning (RP) innovation and its variants (MRP, MRPII, ERP) over time, focussing, in particular, the innovation community, and the design of the innovation itself. Our study highlights the important role played by the bounded nature of the innovation community around RP, and the coherent, if shifting identity, which this innovation maintained over time. These features were seen as central to overcoming the tensions between theorization and translation work, and ultimately ensuring the long-term spread and sustainability of the innovation itself.