Innovating Mindfully with Service-Oriented Grids - The Role of Organizational Mindfulness in Turbulent Environments

Martin Wolf, Goethe University Frankfurt
Jens Vykoukal, Goethe University Frankfurt
Roman Beck, Goethe University Frankfurt

Abstract

Environmental turbulence as being illustrated by the current international financial crisis leads to a high degree of uncertainty in decision-making processes. However, even in conventional economic cycles, demanding decision processes are exposed to varying levels of environmental turbulence and institutional pressure. Consistent with the extant literature, organizational mindfulness as cognitive pattern is supposed to attenuate arising uncertainty and error in the IS assimilation process. So far, little empirical research has been conducted to quantify the impact of organizational mindfulness on the IS assimilation and business value generation process in industry. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment framework this research approach contributes to the diffusion of innovations and IS assimilation theory by validating the role of organizational mindfulness in interacting with institutional pressure against the background of environmental turbulence. The planned crosscountry (North America, Europe) questionnaire-based field study aims at IS decision makers among the 3000 largest financial services providers worldwide allowing for cross-country comparisons.