The Socio-Technical Dimension of Inertia in Digital Transformations

When organizations undertake large transformation initiatives enabled by information technology, these efforts are often hampered by inertia. The literature suggests that inertia plays a dual role in organizations: it is both required for organizational efficiency and an antecedent of resistance to change. While traditionally inertia is believed to reside in human actors, we suggest that inertia is rooted in multiple facets – in routines, resources such as social agents, and also technology – and plays on multiple levels – at individual, group, and organizational ones. In this essay, we propose a new conceptualization of inertia that encompasses and integrates these elements. Our model suggests that inertia occurs as path-dependent rigidity in organizational behavior through the coalescence of social entities with technology artifacts. We illustrate our new understanding of inertia by revisiting two case vignettes of inertia and impeded digital transformations

Location of inertia and inertial mechanisms: spatial concepts for information systems-enabled organizational transformations

While an abundant literature describes what, when and why organizational inertia impedes Information Systems-enabled Organizational Transformations (ISOT), the question of where inertia lies and how it is maintained received scant attention. These questions are all the more important as emerging digital technologies such as AI, data analytics or blockchain fuel new waves of transformations and tie organizations’ transformation dynamics to external platforms, algorithms, gig workers or partners. This paper introduces two new concepts, namely the location of inertia and types of inertial mechanisms, as the foundation for a spatial approach to inertia. This approach aims to better locate inertia and what underlying mechanisms maintain it. We also discuss how these concepts can advance our understanding of ISOT and how they could further be developed into a broader theory

The Early Stages of the Integration of the Internet in EU Newsrooms

The current study explores the perceived integration of the internet inside European newsrooms. The authors carried out a survey with 239 journalists working for 40 of the most-read outlets in 11 European countries.The study shows that journalists consider the internet a useful tool mainly for practical functions, rather than to enhance the core values and functions of their profession. However, news production continues to be based on direct interaction, and journalists’ professional identity is still anchored to print newspapers. Moreover, a lack of communication between publishers and newsrooms emerges. Professional and personal profiles and nationality play a relevant role in the development of attitudes towards the implementation of the internet in newsrooms

Dynamic capabilities and organizational inertia during digital transformation

Research on digital transformations is growing, and research streams regarding the subject are forming. One of those streams is organizational inertia and how it affects the new value creation processes enabled by digital transformation. While information technology increases the uncon- trollable complexity in which firms operate, organizational inertia can be controlled. The pur- pose of this study is through an empirical case to understand sources of organizational inertia, how it affects the success of digital transformation, and how the organizational inertia can be overcome. While the capability view is a dominant lens to research on why some firms succeed and others fail in the face of environmental change, the theoretical premise of this study extends that view to the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. To reflect the chosen approach for this study, the theoretical framework comprises employee-level adoption against organization-level trans- formation. In addition to common microfoundations concepts, three types of organizational in- ertia are defined to set the baseline for the empirical part of this study, and current definitions of digital transformation are discussed. The empirical part was carried out as a single case study. The chosen case was Keltainen Pörssi, a former publication and online media acquired by Sanoma Oy, which provided a fitting context to study organizational inertia due to its unsuccessful reponse to an industry-wide digital trans- formation. The data were collected from two sources – semi-structured interviews and publicly available sources. Adapting the retrospective setting of interviews, the discussed teams cen- tered around how the establishment of online media succeeded and what kind of tensions emerged. A content analysis was performed for the interview data, and a timeline was con- structed based on the publicly available sources. The study's main findings consist of the recognized types of organizational inertia and their sources, what kind of effects they had on the digital transformation, and how some of the rec- ognized types of inertia can be overcome. On top of structural, socio-technical, and cognitive inertia, identity, business model inertia, and a success trap were identified as sources of organ- ization inertia. While the chosen framework for this case focused on employee-level adoption, that did not play a role in the observed transformation. On the other hand, the findings support a more relational approach to digital transformation, where the transformation is not always driven by intentionality, and the scope of the transformation difficult to determine

Policymaking in time of Covid-19: how the rise of techno-institutional inertia impacts the design and delivery of ICT-mediated policies

The paper theorizes the emergence of techno-institutional inertia within public organizations. Specifically, it analyses the impact of techno-institutional inertia on policymaking in emergency time. The paper extends the literature on inertia in organizations to shed light on the inertia triggered by both human actors and technology. Techno-institutional inertia provides useful instruments to better understand how imbrications between technology, policies, and institutions shape the design and the delivery of public policies. The paper builds on the findings from a case study of the Peruvian public sector, analyzing the techno-institutional inertia which shaped the provision of public services to contrast the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper offers valuable insights for policymakers who aim to adopt ICT-based policies in contexts characterized by scarcity of time and resources

The Unfolding of Digital Transformation in Pre-Digital Companies: A Meta-Case Analysis

Due to the growing dispersion of digital technology, many organizations engage in digital transformation. While digital transformation case studies have increased in the information systems and management domain, different ways in which digital transformation unfolds have been proposed. We perform a qualitative meta-analysis of case studies on digital transformation initiatives. From this analysis, we develop two core narratives (a dialectical and a teleological narrative) that we explain in-depth and derive two research avenues from our analysis. Thus, we are advancing the discussion on the unfolding of digital transformation by 1) summarizing existing case studies into two core narratives and 2) shifting the discussion from an explorative character towards a more explanatory approach to better understand how digital transformation unfolds within pre-digital organizations

Advances and challenges in innovation studies

The article discusses recent advances and future challenges in innovation studies. First, it separately considers four main strands of research, studying innovation at the organisational, systemic, sectoral and macroeconomic levels. Then, considering the field as a whole, the article points to the existence of important neglected topics and methodological challenges for future research. In fact, several fundamental issues are still unexplored, such as the co-evolution between technological and institutional change; the role of demand; and the impacts of innovation on individual and collective welfare. There are also important methodological challenges, such as the need for more systematic interactions between the different levels of analysis; the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of technological and institutional changes; and the search for a combination of contingent explanations based on case studies with general analytical results based on econometric and formal models.Innovation; Innovation management; innovation systems; innovation and growth

Idea management in the age of digital innovation: An exploratory case study

(French) Pour bon nombre d’entreprises, l’innovation digitale est devenue synonyme d’impératif stratégique et de priorité opérationnelle. Paradoxalement, l’innovation digitale est un terme fourre-tout dont la signification floue rend la mise en pratique difficile. La manière dont les idées spécifiquement destinées à constituer de futures innovations digitales doivent être gérées est un phénomène récent sur lequel la littérature reste jusqu’à présent muette. Nous apportons une première compréhension empirique à ce phénomène à travers une étude de cas sur la gestion d’idées telle que pratiquée dans une entreprise traditionnelle dans le cadre de sa stratégie de transformation digitale. Nous contribuons à la littérature sur la gestion d’innovations digitales et la transformation organisationnelle en démontrant comment la digitalisation transforme la phase d’initiation de la gestion de l’innovation. Notre cas indique que l’initiation d’innovations digitales nécessite un processus de gestion des idées flexible et une participation hétérogène d’acteurs. Une gestion des idées innovantes sous forme de couples de problèmes et de solutions en constante coévolution y est propice et aide à surmonter des inerties économiques et politiques dans l’initiation d’innovations digitales. Nous espérons ainsi guider les praticiens dans la mise en œuvre d’un processus de gestion d’idées propice au développement d’innovations digitales

Stickiness Impediments in Digital HRM

Realizing optimal value from digital HRM is a major challenge for most firms. This research adopts a practice lens to investigate how traditional HRM practice elements can constrain digital HRM practices. Findings from an interpretive case study suggest that constrained digital HRM practices emerge because employees and managers are embedded in sticky traditional work practices and not primarily because they are unwilling to adopt digital technologies. Conventional wisdom suggests that the quality of the digital HRM, meeting end-user performance expectations, and managing resistance to change can improve suboptimal digital practices. We propose that digital HRM transformation efforts should also change outdated routines rather than focusing only on technology improvements and individual behavioral change. The authors propose a model that explains stickiness in digital HRM practices and offers recommendations for HR practitioners to reduce stickiness

From skepticism to mutual support: towards a structural change in the relations between participatory budgeting and the information and communication technologies?

Until three years ago, ICT Technologies represented a main “subordinate clause” within the “grammar” of Participatory Budgeting (PB), the tool made famous by the experience of Porto Alegre and today expanded to more than 1400 cities across the planet. In fact, PB – born to enhance deliberation and exchanges among citizens and local institutions – has long looked at ICTS as a sort of “pollution factor” which could be useful to foster transparency and to support the spreading of information but could also lead to a lowering in quality of public discussion, turning its “instantaneity” into “immediatism,” and its “time-saving accessibility” into “reductionism” and laziness in facing the complexity of public decision-making through citizens’ participation. At the same time, ICTs often regarded Participatory Budgeting as a tool that was too-complex and too-charged with ideology to cooperate with. But in the last three years, the barriers which prevented ICTs and Participatory Budgeting to establish a constructive dialogue started to shrink thanks to several experiences which demonstrated that technologies can help overcome some “cognitive injustices” if not just used as a means to “make simpler” the organization of participatory processes and to bring “larger numbers” of intervenients to the process. In fact, ICTs could be valorized as a space adding “diversity” to the processes and increasing outreach capacity. Paradoxically, the experiences helping to overcome the mutual skepticism between ICTs and PB did not come from the centre of the Global North, but were implemented in peripheral or semiperipheral countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Portugal in Europe), sometimes in cities where the “digital divide” is still high (at least in terms of Internet connections) and a significant part of the population lives in informal settlements and/or areas with low indicators of “connection.” Somehow, these experiences were able to demystify the “scary monolithicism” of ICTs, showing that some instruments (like mobile phones, and especially the use of SMS text messaging) could grant a higher degree of connectivity, diffusion and accountability, while other dimensions (which could risk jeopardizing social inclusion) could be minimized through creativity. The paper tries to depict a possible panorama of collaboration for the near future, starting from descriptions of some of the above mentioned “turning-point” experiences – both in the Global North as well as in the Global South