Abstract

Conventional explanations of socio-technical innovations point to technical shortcomings, organisational inertia, vested interests, inadequate resources, or weak leadership. While these factors are undoubtedly relevant, they may not capture the deeper challenge. The problem may be one of organisational sensemaking.

Organisations do not respond to innovations as objective artefacts. They respond to interpretations of innovations. Consequently, the success or failure of a new infrastructure depends less on what it is than on what organisational actors believe it could be. Indeed, innovations often emerge from conceptual worlds different from those inhabited by their intended users. Researchers may view a new infrastructure as a solution to persistent coordination, governance, or accountability problems. Practitioners, however, may perceive the same initiative as just another reporting requirement, another technology project, another governance framework, or another temporary reform.

In such situations, proponents and adopters are not discussing the same object. The innovation exists within different interpretive frames. What appears as resistance may therefore be a failure of mutual recognition.

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