Extending the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) Framework to the Digital World

The rapid rise of digital technologies forces us to re-think our current conceptualization of Information Technologies (IT) where recent theoretical approaches like complexity, evolutionary and network theories tend to remain silent on human (managerial and organizational) choices underlying the development of digital technologies. In this Research-in-Progress paper, we first describe the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) framework, originating in the 1980s. We then propose extending the SCOT framework along four dimensions in order to ensure its suitability for the digital world: (1) Technology – focus towards digital technologies, (2) Interaction – focus on interpersonal, person-technology, technology-technology and technology-physical environment interactions (3) Social Groups – focus on networked individualism, and (4) Context – focus on socio-digital context. We conclude by proposing to co-develop and -test the extended framework as a joint effort across several academic disciplines in order to use it when conducting research on the social construction of digital ecosystems

The Triple Helix Perspective of Innovation Systems

Alongside the neo-institutional model of networked relations among universities, industries, and governments, the Triple Helix can be provided with a neo-evolutionary interpretation as three selection environments operating upon one another: markets, organizations, and technological opportunities. How are technological innovation systems different from national ones? The three selection environments fulfill social functions: wealth creation, organization control, and organized knowledge production. The main carriers of this system-industry, government, and academia-provide the variation both recursively and by interacting among them under the pressure of competition. Empirical case studies enable us to understand how these evolutionary mechanisms can be expected to operate in historical instance. The model is needed for distinguishing, for example, between trajectories and regimes

SAP - is it systematic research bias, which is to blame for such post implementation disappointment?

SAP is a major ERP Package that requires no introduction and research into the area is widespread and well reported. However, more and more reports are emerging of the failure of SAP as a package to meet the needs of business. This paper looks at the research of SAP for evidences of systematic research biases to see if that is the cause for such implementation failure being missed. A comprehensive literature search on SAP papers was undertaken with some alarming results showing a disturbing uncritical and possibly biased perspective from SAP Research literature

How the Future is Done

As technologies and human systems become increasingly impactful and pervasive, unexpected outcomes often leave researchers to perform ‘research autopsies’ to determine what went wrong. Despite concern around disruptive technologies and the growing complexity, interdependence and volatility of business environments, academics remained oriented to researching the here-and-now and assuming an extrapolation of the present into the future. This research offers “doing future(s)” as a critical research orientation to create discourses of alternative future(s) which our research bring forth. We argue that by engaging in doing future(s), academics provide a critical voice and participate in reframing and recalibrating the futures which we make through collective action. We provide an overview of future-studies approaches categorized by epistemic stance and illustrate the distinctions with a case example. We then describe broad implications for Information Systems research, as well as business practice

Sociología de la innovación: construcción social de la perspectiva tecnológica

This theoretical paper describes the effect of social action on technological artifacts and explores how innovation may flourish or be diminished in  society. Using the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) perspective, three main elements namely, flexibility of interpretation, relevant social groups and technological frame are described and their impact on innovation is discussed. The paper proposes that in developing societies,  flexibility is hardly pressed by technological frames and concrete social norms do not allow the alternative designs and the useage of artifacts. This paper proposes that innovation might  flourish in a society if technological frame change, and entrepreneurship become technological frames that can change the fixed meaning of artifacts and create a path for alternative designs and interpretations.Este artículo académico de tipo teórico describe el efecto que tiene la acción social sobre los artefactos tecnológicos y explora cómo la innovación puede florecer o reducirse en la sociedad. Utilizando la perspectiva del modelo de Construcción Social de la Tecnología (SCOT, por sus siglas en inglés), se describen y se discute el impacto que tienen en la innovación tres importantes elementos, a saber: flexibilidad de la interpretación, grupos sociales relevantes y marco tecnológico. Este artículo propone que en las sociedad en desarrollo, la flexibilidad es difícilmente motivada por los marcos tecnológicos y las normas sociales concretas no admite diseños alternativos ni el uso de artefactos. Este artículo propone que la innovación puede surgir en una sociedad donde se presente un cambio en el marco tecnológico y el emprendimiento se convierta en el marco tecnológico que puede modificar el significado fijo que tienen los artefactos y crear una ruta para diseños e interpretaciones alternativas

TRANSLATING ES-EMBEDDED INSTITUTIONAL LOGICS THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL FRAMING: AN INDIAN-BASED CASE EXAMPLE

In this paper we explore how the implementation of an Enterprise System (ES) is related to organizational change, using an institutional theory lens. Our paper responds to recent calls by institutional theorists to first, better understand the ways in which macro, field-level logics of action are framed and applied in micro practices within an organization and second, to understand how material objects contribute to institutional stability and change. Our findings show the interplay between macro logics and the process of local framing through which these logics become locally interpreted, leading eventually to new institutionalized practices. Our study suggests the possibility of co-mingling contrasting and competing logics in the local context. We do this through the interpretive exploration of a rich case study of an ES implementation in India. This is an ideal case to examine because the institutional logic inscribed in the ES is developed within one organizational field, but is applied in a very different organizational field, thus allowing us to explore the macro-micro dynamics as well as the role of technology as a carrier and stabilizer of institutional structures and practices

An Examination of the Ecosystems Perspective in Consideration of New Theories in Biology and Thermodynamics

Eco-systems perspective and its predecessor, systems theory, have been put forth as the guiding methodological framework for social work. In fact, operationally and theoretically most of these formulations are mechanistic and dualistic. Social work systems theory claims ecology, thermodynamics, and biology as its historical roots. It is, therefore, incumbent on the profession to examine the fundamentals of those disciplines. This paper examines social work\u27s eco-systemic formulations in light of new hypotheses in biology and thermodynamics as well as the ecological crisis of our times. Professionalism will then be discussed as the operational demonstration of social work\u27s mechanistic philosophy

What is paradox in Information Systems research? Towards a narratology

Paradoxes are intriguing narrative devices, enabling information systems (IS) researchers to develop captivating stories that encapsulate the richness of the emergent socio-technical phenomena they study. However, existing paradox research in IS has been fragmented by incoherency around the meaning of the term ‘paradox’. To help provide greater consistency and clarity, this paper works towards a narratology of paradox in IS. We review the existing IS paradox literature as captured in a sample of 139 publications in IS and related journals. In the first round of analysis, we identify six archetypes of how authors engage with paradoxes: complication, resolution, adaptation, problematisation, explanation, and exaptation. In the second round of analysis, we inductively code the different patterns in which narratives about paradoxes unfold in the existing IS paradox literature. Our framework, when completed, can help aspiring authors of IS paradox papers more clearly articulate their contribution

Will the humble inherit the Earth? Towards a realistic politics of habitation

The related notions of habitation and habitability offer a very promising way for framing the conversation about the issues around which environmental political theory has gravitated from its inception: sustainability, environmental justice, preservation. However, the connection between the two must probably be revised in order to produce an ideal of habitation that is useful in the current sociopolitical context. This paper seeks to clarify their mutual relations and explores the way for the politicization of habitation. Underlining the role of nonintentional actions in the past history of habitation, it will argue that, in order to politicize habitation, the latter must be made salient -so that citizens realize that the socionatural relation is not that 'natural'. Ernesto Laclau's notion of the political as an uncovering of contingencies may be useful, while the Lacanian notion of fantasy may be used to explain the gap between current (instrumental) modes of habitation and pervasive (Arcadian) ideals of it. As to how can the relation between habitation and habitability be effectively politicized, this paper will argue that it is the political, rather than politics, what offers a most promising path for re-imagining habitation in our complex and ambivalent societies. Ecological citizenship and newly created spaces for nature are sketched as strategies for politicizing habitation. Bioregionalism is recovered as a radical politics of habitation whose flaws must be avoided if habitation is to be reframed in a mostly urban, hypertechnological world. In this regard, the paper also develops a particular narrative for a reframed habitation, a 'clever adaptation' understood as a regulatory ideal towards which different actions and discourses can be directed.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec