The role of IT in organizational innovation – A systematic literature review

Information technology (IT) is broadly recognized as an important element in organizational innovation, however there has been relatively little integration of Information Systems (IS) research on the role of IT in organizational innovation. Such integration is particularly important in view of recent calls to examine the evolving ontological nature of IT, wherein IT artifacts are now shaping physical reality. We systematically examine innovation-related literature published in the leading IS journals in the period between 2009 and 2020 and we identify and summarize the core theoretical discourses in this domain. We find that extant literature largely examines the role of IT in innovation at a high level of abstraction, focusing on IT investments and IT capabilities, and consequently precluding granular insights on who, what, when, where, how, and why in relation to organizational innovation. To address this limitation and to provide a structuring lens for future research, we develop the organizational innovation system framework which posits that actors, IT artifacts, actions and organizational context are the key elements in organizational innovation systems that require more granular examination to yield deeper insights on how information technology contributes to organizational innovation. We re-examine the literature through the organizational innovation system lens and we identify gaps in extant research. We also outline potential directions for expanding the scope of future research.     

Using organizational influence processes to overcome IS implementation barriers: lessons from a longitudinal case study of SPI implementation

A fundamental tenet of the information systems (IS) discipline holds that: (a) a lack of formal power and influence over the organization targeted for change, (b) weak support from top management, and (c) organizational memories of prior failures are barriers to implementation success. Our research, informed by organization influence, compellingly illustrates that such conditions do not necessarily doom a project to failure. In this paper, we present an analysis of how an IS implementation team designed and enacted a coordinated strategy of organizational influence to achieve implementation success despite these barriers. Our empirical analysis also found that technology implementation and change is largely an organizational influence process (OIP), and thus technical-rational approaches alone are inadequate for achieving success. Our findings offer managers important insights into how they can design and enact OIPs to effectively manage IS implementation. Further, we show how the theory of organizational influence can enhance understanding of IS implementation dynamics and advance the development of a theory of effective IS change agentry.     

Information technology,the organizational capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy and firm performance: a resource-based analysis

The study of the relationships between information technology (IT), environmental organizational issues and firm performance is a cutting-edge research topic for the information systems (IS) community. However, at present we know very little about these relationships. Drawing on the perspective of IT-enabled organizational capabilities and the literature on organizations and the natural environment, our study introduces conceptually the construct organizational capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy to the IS field. We propose that IT capability may enable the implementation of a proactive environmental strategy and that this strategy could play a significant role in determining the business value of IT. Using structural equations modeling with data collected from 63 firms, we find that IT capability is an enabler of proactive environmental strategy and that this strategy plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT on firm performance. Our study provides initial evidence on the role of IT in the implementation of proactive environmental practices. Our results suggest to IT executives that their decisions matter in shaping environmental sustainability, which in turn will generate business value from IT.     

Understanding IS/IT implementation through metaphors: A multi-metaphor stakeholder analysis in an educational setting

Notwithstanding the importance of metaphors in organizational research, this paper recognizes that few empirical studies examining the multiple metaphors elicited by stakeholders (for instance, teachers, administrators and managers) in the context of IS/IT implementation within an educational setting have been conducted. Using a total of 30 in-depth interviews carried out within a further and higher educational college in the United Kingdom, the broad aim of this paper is to examine the metaphors produced from organizational members in their accounts of IS/IT implementation. The analysis reveals a number of dominant metaphors that feature in IS literature on which participants drew—journey, military, machine, bodily/illness, sports and religion—as well as a number of additional, novel metaphors not widely acknowledged within IS literature, namely nautical, horticultural and child-like metaphors. The paper proposes that practitioners and managers should be aware of the multiple metaphorical expressions members of an organization use as it may help to clarify the tensions arising during IS/IT implementation. Furthermore, an exploration of these metaphors generates fresh insights into implementation practices, which may otherwise go unnoticed.     

The role of IT in crisis response: Lessons from the SARS and Asian Tsunami disasters

Research on crisis management recognizes the important role of information although few studies of crisis response deal explicitly with information systems. In this paper, we present a case study of Singapore’s response to the SARS and Asian Tsunami disasters. Using the resource-based view of the firm as our theoretical lens, we examine three research questions: what IS resources are needed in crisis response, how are these IS resources bundled with other non-IS resources, and how are they effectively coordinated? Our analysis of the case suggests that existing assets such as information technology infrastructure, leadership, and collaborative networks and existing capabilities such as the ability to build and apply IT, the ability to recognize signals and the ability to see the big picture are critical during crisis response. The actions taken using these assets and capabilities include informing resolutely, gaining stakeholder commitment and agile mobilizing of people and IT. Our analysis further suggests that coordination mechanisms, namely the crisis response organizational, informational, and IT structures, are important facilitators of the response actions. The resulting framework of resource deployment during crisis response extends the resource based view of the firm into a cooperative setting, aiming to understand the nature of IS resource value in a cooperative context, and considers not just the resources per se, but the means of coordination the resources.     

Understanding the influence of information systems competencies on process innovation: A resource-based view

The resource based view of firms is used to explore how information system (IS) competencies affect process innovation in an organization. Data was collected through a case study of two process innovations at a healthcare firm in the United States. The findings illustrate how six IS competencies – Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Project Management, Ambidexterity, IT/Innovation Governance, Business-IS Linkages – can differentially affect the conception, development and implementation of process innovations. Implications for researchers and practitioners are drawn from these conclusions and suggestions for further research are proposed.     

How information-sharing values influence the use of information systems: An investigation in the business intelligence systems context

Although the constituents of information systems (IS) success and their relationships have been well documented in the business value of information technology (IT) and strategic IS literature, our understanding of how information-sharing values affect the relationships among IS success dimensions is limited. In response, we conduct a quantitative study of 146 medium and large firms that have implemented a business intelligence system in their operations. Our results highlight that in the business intelligence systems context information-sharing values are not directly linked to IT-enabled information use, yet they act as significant moderators of information systems success dimensions relationships.     

Technical and management perceptions of enterprise information system importance, implementation and benefits

Abstract.  This paper compares information systems (IS) integration in high-tech organizations from the information technology (IT) and general management perspectives. All the organizations studied have experience of integrated Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and some with their extension to Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management systems. The operational scope of the sample systems, and senior IT and general management perceptions of the importance of their functions, benefits and implementation success factors, obtained by qualitative interviews with 49 senior managers and a quantitative survey of 219 high-tech companies, are described and compared. Although the opinions expressed indicate some mutual hostility, IT and general management perceptions of IS implementation were very similar. IT managements overall importance assessments of business functions were more strongly correlated with their overall level of implementation, and they tended to rate system benefits and system reliability more highly. The significance of these findings is discussed and some suggestions for further investigation, placing them in a wider context, are made. Arguably, the similarities found are more important than the differences.     

Exploring university perceptions of IS implementation and attributes of success: a case study of public universities in Thailand

ABSTRACT

This study aims to gain a better understanding of public university implementation of organizational information systems (IS). Mixed methods research was used, including initial exploration, telephone interviews, and a self-administered mail survey. The data were gathered from university personnel at 40 public universities in Thailand, and the research focused on the university student-registration systems (S-R). The study results highlight the different perceptions between two response groups: administrators and system users. The results show different perceptions of IS implementation and attributes that define IS implementation success. The results also serve as important suggestions that need to be recognized by administrators and practitioners for effectively planning the implementation of organizational IS in public universities.     

Information systems use as strategy practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use

Information systems (IS) are strategic in so far as they are used to realize strategic intent. Yet, while much has been said about aligning IS functionality with the strategic intent and how to organizationally implement strategically aligned systems, less is known of how to successfully implement strategic change associated with system use – a truly critical challenge within strategic IS implementation. Drawing on a strategy-as-practice perspective we address this gap by developing a multi-dimensional view of IS strategy, conceptualizing three key challenges in the IS strategy process, to explain how and why a paper mill, despite successfully implementing a strategic production management system, failed to produce intended strategic change. We call this outcome strategy blindness: organizational incapability to realize the strategic intent of implemented, available system capabilities. Using a longitudinal case study we investigate how cognitive rigidity of key actors and fixed, interrelated practices shaped the implementation of the new production system. We also identify core components and dynamics that constitute a richer multi-dimensional view of the IS strategy implementation (alignment) process. In particular, we identify three salient factors that contribute to strategy blindness – mistranslation of intent, flexibility of the IT artifact and cognitive entrenchment – and discuss how they affect strategic implementation processes. We conclude by discussing implications of our findings for IS strategy theory and practice, especially the contribution of strategy-as-practice to this stream of research.     

Information technology and the search for organizational agility: A systematic review with future research possibilities

Organizations are increasingly turning to information technology (IT) to help them respond to unanticipated environmental threats and opportunities. In this paper, we introduce a systematic review of the literature on IT-enabled agility, helping to establish the boundary between what we know and what we don’t know. We base our review on a wide body of literature drawn from the AIS Basket of Eight IT journals, a cross-section of non-Basket journals, IT practitioner outlets, and premier international IS conferences. We review the use of different theoretical lenses used to investigate the relationship between IT and organizational agility and how the literature has conceptualized agility, its antecedents, and consequences. We also map the evolution of the literature through a series of stages that highlight how researchers have built on previous work. Lastly, we discuss opportunities for future research in an effort to close important gaps in our understanding.     

Managing culture creep: Toward a strategic model of user IT culture

This article describes a framework of IT user culture that has implications for organizational IT strategy. The research was conducted in multiple settings with a grounded theory approach. The resulting framework is anchored to nine archetypal IT user profiles and encompasses their inter-group dynamics. By adopting a cultural perspective on IT usage, the framework can inform IT adoption and usage strategy with possible cultural antecedents and determinants of usage constructs common in IS research. The proposed framework suggests how management can influence the migration of IT user culture (culture creep). This framework can also enrich other acceptance models in order to more fully consider the human factor during IT implementation and adoption. The results underscore the importance of culture-customizing organizational IT socialization, training and evolution programs.     

Organizational impact of system quality,information quality,and service quality

Increased organizational dependence on information systems drives management attention towards improving information systems’ quality. A recent survey shows that “Improve IT quality” is one of the top concerns facing IT executives. As IT quality is a multidimensional measure, it is important to determine what aspects of IT quality are critical to organizations to help Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to devise effective IT quality improvement strategies. In this research, we model the relationship between information systems’ (IS) quality and organizational impact. We hypothesize greater organizational impact in situations in which system quality, information quality and service quality are high. We also hypothesize a positive relationship between system quality and information quality. We test our hypotheses using survey data. Our structural equation model exhibits a good fit with the observed data. Our results show that IS service quality is the most influential variable in this model (followed by information quality and system quality), thus highlighting the importance of IS service quality for organizational performance. This paper contributes theoretically to IS success models through the system quality-to-information quality and IS quality-to-organizational impact links. Implications of our results for practice and research are discussed.     

When users are IT experts too: the effects of joint IT competence and partnership on satisfaction with enterprise-level systems implementation

Enterprise-level information systems (IS) are fundamental to businesses. Unfortunately, implementing these large-scale systems is a complex and risky endeavor. As a result, these initiatives must tap the expertise and active involvement of both the IS department and the enterprise's functional areas. Past studies focusing on IS implementation teams consistently identify the IS department as the source of technical expertise and leadership, while functional department team members are typically relegated to the role of business experts. However, unlike the past, many business professionals are knowledgeable about information technology (IT) and are increasingly capable of contributing to IS implementations from a technical perspective as well as a business perspective. This study examines how IT competence held by both the IS department and the user department stakeholders contributes to user satisfaction with the enterprise-level system implementation. Specifically, this research introduces a theoretically grounded construct, joint IT competence, which emerges when the IS department and user department stakeholders integrate their individually held IT competences. The study's results empirically demonstrate that joint IT competence is a key driver of user satisfaction in enterprise-level IS implementations. Although not as significant as joint IT competence, results show that partner-based leadership between the IS department and user stakeholders also influences user satisfaction with IS implementations.     

Data Warehousing Infusion and Organizational Effectiveness

Data warehousing (DW) has emerged as one of the most powerful technology innovations in recent years to support organization-wide decision making and has become a key component in the information technology (IT) infrastructure. Proponents of DW claim that its infusion can dramatically enhance the ability of businesses to improve the access, distribution, and sharing of information and provide managerial decision support for complex business questions. DW is also an enabling technology for data mining, customer-relationship management, and other business-intelligence applications. Although data warehouses have been around for quite some time, they have been plagued by high failure rates and limited spread or use. Drawing upon past research on the adoption and diffusion of innovations and on the implementation of information systems (IS), we examine the key organizational and innovation factors that influence the infusion (diffusion) of DW within organizations and also examine if more extensive infusion leads to improved organizational outcomes. In this paper, we conducted a field study, where two senior managers (one from IS and the other from a line function) from 117 companies participated, and developed a structural model to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that four of the seven variables examined in this paper-organizational support, quality of the project management process, compatibility, and complexity-significantly influence the degree of infusion of DW and that the infusion, in turn, significantly influences organization-level benefits and stakeholder satisfaction. The findings of this paper have interesting implications for both research and practice in IT and DW infusion, as well as in the organization-level impact of the infusion of enterprise-wide infrastructural and decision support technologies such as DW.     

Literature review: Understanding information systems strategy in the digital age

IT/IS strategy is of central importance to practice and many well-developed lines of research have contributed to our understanding of IT/IS strategy. However, throughout the last decade, digitalization has fundamentally transformed the business world and put into question traditional strategy wisdom. As information technologies are the driver of this digital transformation, we can expect an even more fundamental change in IT/IS strategy thinking. To verify this expectation, we undertook an in-depth, extensive review of the academic literature on this topic. Our review, which is time-framed to the years 2008–2018, distils five different directions in the development of IT/IS strategy research. It also identifies a shift in how IT/IS strategy is defined and investigated over this period. Moreover, we present an emerging debate on how digitalization challenges traditional IT/IS strategy wisdom. As this debate is still in its infancy, we take it further by entering into the larger discussion on digitalization, including digital innovation, digital ecosystems, and digital transformation. Building on this, we derive at deeper insights on how IT/IS strategy could, should, or should better not be understood in the digital age.     

The strategic dimension of transactional information systems: some organizational implications

Abstract. Often information systems (IS) are classified in three groups: (a) transactional, used mainly for co-ordination and resource allocation purposes at the operational level of a company; (b) tactical, often employed to support the resource procurement activities typical of middle management; and (c) information systems for strategic decision making, designed to help in the planning and strategy design processes which are the direct responsibility of top management. In general, the amount of care and management attention that companies give to these different types of systems is proportional to their position in this hierarchy: little attention is devoted to the mundane transaction-pushing systems and exquisite care is put into developing the sophisticated decision making aid for the CEO and his/her staff.
The IS/IT literature has been reporting quite commonly cases in which companies have attained or lost great competitive advantages by way of their transactional information systems [for example, Emery Worldwide, Baxter Healthcare ASAP system, and Frontier Airlines]. The aim of this paper is to identify actions that companies can take to realize potential benefits of their IS, in particular from their low-level, transactional IS.
Among other actions, we will conclude that companies would be better off if they: (a) have the IS department at the right place in the organization, staffed with people knowledgeable about the basic nature of the business in which the company is engaged; (b) are sensible to what can be called 'strategic maintenance' of systems, (c) set up a formal procedure for IS planning to ensure coherence between IS plans and business plans, derived, in turn, from business strategy, and (d) keep abreast of the relevant technology.
Several examples taken from European companies are used to illustrate these conclusions.     

Intentionality and power interplay in IS implementation: The case of an asset management firm

This paper evaluates the interplay between intentionality of stakeholders, organizational power and information systems (IS) implementation in the context of an European firm implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning system. We found that the implementation coincided with significant restructuring of power relations within the firm. We also found that the intentions of various stakeholders came to bear in terms of how organizational power got manifested. Our findings suggest a complex interplay between individual intentions and organizational power. Specifically, our study contributes to the literature by providing insights into the systemic nature of organizational power regarding IS implementations and how it relates to individual intentions.     

Factors affecting the implementation success of Internet-based information systems

The Internet has come to revolutionize the way in which business conducts commercial activities. In this paper, we report on the development of a model of Internet-based information systems (IIS) implementation in business-to-consumer electronic commerce based on IS implementation and technology innovation–implementation studies. Our research model suggests that eight factors, comprising the characteristics of IIS technology innovation, organizational factors, and IS related factors, affect the implementation success of IIS. IIS themselves are characterized by three dimensions: volume, sophistication, and information contents. The suggested model was empirically tested using survey results from Korean companies that have adopted IIS. The results of multivariate regression analysis reveal that compatibility and IS infrastructure are key determinants of the extent of IIS implementation (in terms of volume, sophistication, and information contents). IS expertise potentially affects the extent of IIS implementation.     

Understanding IS implementation by estimating power of subunits

Understanding distribution of intra-organization power can provide useful information about implementation processes and also explanations (or predictions) of events and outcomes. When the implementation of IS/IT is used for both automatisation and business process changes, implementation involves organizational politics. Politics involves the interplay of various groups pursuing different interests while exercising power. Previous research of IS in power is discussed and extended by presenting a framework to measure subunit power. This framework is derived from organizational literature. The value of the framework for IS settings is illustrated by a case study. This framework is found to be useful for mapping relative power distribution at different moments in time. Changes in power distribution help explain a dramatic change in an implementation process. The understanding of relative subunit power is found to provide valuable ex ante information on the likely outcome of an IS implementation project or the possible obstacles an organizational change project might face.