Digital Probes as Opening Possibilities of Generativity

The information systems research on generativity promises unprompted, innovative inputs from uncoordinated audiences, whose participation with heterogeneous technological resources generates diverse outputs and opens new possibilities. The question is how to perpetuate the openness on which the outputs of generativity rely. We advance, as a potential mechanism of generativity, the concept of digital probes, which leverage human and technological resources in hybrid digital and physical environments. The aesthetically rich probes challenge values, identities, and practices, cultivating emotional tensions that can reveal previously unexplored and unimagined possibilities, resulting in novel ideas, thoughts, and expressions. The new possibilities reveal what is hidden; reconfigure practices; cross-appropriate technological and social resources; and thereby further expand what can be experienced, viewed, and imagined. Further, the new possibilities draw new actors that again view things differently and seek different experiences, thus fueling emotional tensions that in turn open new possibilities, without settling them. We illustrate digital probes and their effects at Formula E. Formula E is a new motorsports venture that leveraged eSports, social media, crowdsourcing, and driverless cars in digital probes to reveal and examine previously unimagined possibilities of what the world of motorsport could be in the digital era. We end by exploring future research directions

Uncovering Digital Platform Generativity: A Systematic Literature Review

Generativity is identified as the driver for digital innovation and platform growth by engaging a large number of actors with diverse skills. Generativity is also the signal of innovation, and it enables innovative process self-reinforcement, which leads the digital platforms to evolve in unanticipated ways. However, with the proliferation of generativity in the Information Systems (IS) literature growing, we find the understanding of generativity is inconsistent. We conduct a systematic literature review to clear the understanding mist and advance the understanding of generativity. Our study shows that generativity is a social-technical system in which social actors interact with each other by employing digital technologies. Generativity is not unequivocally positive to the digital platform due to the inherent tension but requires deliberate actions by the platform owners. Our study contributes to IS research by providing a comprehensive conceptual framework of digital platform generativity

Understanding Digital Platform Generativity from a Sociomaterial Perspective

Research on digital platform generativity has predominantly taken a substantivist view, considering digital platforms as relatively static, self-contained entities separated from their human actors. We argue this view, while intuitive and common sensical, also has a downside – biasing researchers and practitioners from understanding the dynamic and processual nature of digital platform constituted through generativity in the flow of time. We offer a sociomaterial view to consider digital platforms as an assemblage of enacted sociomaterial practices, enabling researchers to move from studying platforms to platform becoming, and from generativity to generating. We illustrate these ideas via a preliminary empirical study of how generativity is constituted by the performativity of a digital platform, as it is enacted by the human agencies entailed in its design and management. Ultimately, our study aims to take steps towards a sociomaterial theory of digital platform generativity that can contributes to the digital platform literature

Digital Strategy in Information Systems : A Literature Review and an Educational Solution Based on Problem-Based Learning

In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of information systems (IS) research on digital strategy. However, it is not clear how digital strategy is taught in higher education. To investigate this issue, we conducted a literature review on digital strategy in the IS field and IS education. We then developed a digital strategy course using the problem-based learning (PBL) approach with constructivism as a theoretical lens. The research contributes to the literature by illustrating the key differences between digital strategy and IT/IS strategy while providing insight into the dimensions of digital strategy. These dimensions are digital strategy environments, digital strategy visions, digital strategy approach, digital strategy capabilities, digital strategy stakeholders, and digital strategy challenges. We then used these dimensions as inputs to design the digital strategy course. We contribute to IS education by proposing a meta-requirement for the digital strategy course based on the PBL approach and provide an example of the course syllabus.©2022 by the Information Systems & Computing Academic Professionals, Inc. (ISCAP).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Would Archimedes Shout “Eureka” If He Had Google? Innovating with Search Algorithms

In this paper we investigate the relationship between algorithmic search tools and the innovation process. Today, search algorithms are used for all tasks, yet we know little about their impact on the well-studied innovation process. We suggest a theoretical framework based on centripetal and centrifugal forces that conceptualizes the relationship between the algorithmic design logics of search tools and the innovation process. We use it to illustrate the current challenges with the use of informational search tools based on design principles of popularity and personalization, for innovation. We propose the need to develop and use exploratory search models and tools for innovation

HOW PARTS CONNECT TO WHOLE IN BUILDING DIGITAL GENERATIVITY IN DIGITAL PLATFORM ECOSYSTEMS

Generativity drives digital innovation and platform growth by engaging many other businesses with diverse digital skills and resources in a digital platform. As the proliferation of generativity research grows, the Information Systems (IS) literature demonstrates the basic understanding of this notion in the areas of properties of digital technologies, social events, and/or the interaction between these two without an integrated view of how generativity is raised to enable the digital innovation. Therefore, considering that digital platforms are a kind of ecosystem, we aim to develop a new understanding of this emerging phenomenon by employing a holistic perspective. Through the information ecology theoretical lens, we develop a digital generativity process model that explains how the technological and social resources interact to generate perpetual digital innovation in digital platform ecosystems (DPE). This study contributes to generativity research by providing a dynamic and holistic view of generativity formalization in DPEs

A Typology of Digital Offerings

This paper develops a typology of digital offerings to shed light on the distinct characteristics of this emerging digital phenomenon. Drawing on Roman contract law, the typology focuses on digital rights offered (selling, leasing, partnering, and agencing) and digital assets involved (tangible and intangible). These two dimensions lead to eight archetypes that we illustrate through the diverse Amazon portfolio of digital offerings. The typology sets out to shape the scholarly discourse around digital offering research and practice and to provide a foundation from which the characteristics and mechanisms of digital offering value appropriation can be further understood and operationalized. Ultimately, by rejecting the traditional service vs. product distinction and instead accounting for offering variations based on the intrinsic merits of digital offerings, we are embracing a digital terminology rather than attempting to transfer the terminology of the physical world to the digital realm

Hybrid Sport Configurations: The Intertwining of the Physical and the Digital

The motivation for this research follows from our observation of the increasing influence of digitalization on sporting activities and the emergence of physical-digital hybrid sport. While traditional, physical sport gradually embraces digital elements and experiences to the game, born-digital eSport increasingly involves physical elements in its setting (e.g., offline tournaments). In this paper, we investigate various physical-digital hybrid configurations of existing and emerging sporting activities and their implications for the fusing of the digital and physical worlds. Based on an inductive approach and drawing from existing literature on physical-digital hybridity, we conceptualize four sport clusters (digitally supported sport, digitally augmented sport, digitally replicated sport, and digitally translated sport) along three dimensions: the sporting activities (especially in terms of the relationship between the digital and physical components), the sporting arena, and actors’ influence. Based on our conceptualization and observations, we discuss implications for both the information systems and sport management domains