Knowledge creation: the hidden driver of innovation in the digital age

The importance of knowledge creation and innovation for organizational success is well established. At the same time, emerging technologies are ‘generative’ platforms with the capacity to produce unprompted change. At its core, innovation is a process of creating and using new ideas and concepts. As such, innovation may be conceptualized as a special class of knowledge creation. Further, the knowledge creation process is a driver of innovation. The paper develops a model of organizational knowledge creation and innovation to pinpoint the moments in the knowledge creation process where innovation occurs. The utility of the framework is illustrated with data from case studies on knowledge creation in innovative virtual world projects, which in turn reveals a set of strategies for driving knowledge creation and innovation in firms. The research has important implications for IS research on emerging technologies and user-generated and crowd-sourced innovation

INNOVATION CO-CREATION IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

The emergence of web-based technologies has radically influenced the ways in which individuals around the world communicate, represent themselves, share ideas, and otherwise interact with one another (Ward and Sonneborn, 2009; Rogers, 2003). In particular, these technologies allow people to communicate directly with one another and to share and shape their own experiences; as a result, customers and other organisational stakeholders are increasingly involved in the design of products and services (Ramaswamy and Gouillart, 2010, p. 102). During innovation co-creation specifically, customers take an active and creative role in the intentional and successful adoption and application of ideas, processes, products or procedures that are new to the adopting organization. This study carries out six case studies of innovation co-creation in the virtual world of Second Life. Virtual worlds allow users to engage in highly active and participatory forms of co-creation that are difficult if not impossible to replicate in other environments. The study explores collaborative processes used for innovation co-creation in virtual worlds. In particular, the study presents an analysis of behaviours used to facilitate innovation co-creation in virtual world projects and the factors that affect it. The study leverages this analysis to derive practical recommendations for virtual world users and virtual world designers that can be used to stimulate and support innovation co-creation in virtual worlds

INNOVATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS: SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND DIFFUSION

This research-in-progress paper investigates the impact of social structures in virtual worlds (VWs) on the diffusion of innovations within them. Research has illustrated that innovation diffusion takes place within virtual worlds. VWs facilitate the emergence of purposeful communities which support the (often real-world) activities of their members including the development and adoption of innovations. Thus, VWs alter the social structures in which their users are embedded and the manner in which they communicate, both of which are thought to influence the diffusion of technical innovations amongst individuals. Though technical innovation is at the heart of Information Systems (IS) research, empirical research investigating innovation in the networked age is in its infancy. Thus, this paper presents a framework of propositions in relation to the impact of social structures on the diffusion of innovations within VWs and proposes the use of social network analysis to investigate these propositions

In search of lost time: investigating the temporality of student engagement, the role of learning technologies, and implications for student performance

The 25th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Auckland, New Zealand, 8 - 10 December, 2014Much has been written about the importance of engaging students in the learning process. However, studies have shown that students today spend significantly less time on their studies than their forebears. Given the limitations of the existing body of knowledge, this study reviews what is currently known about full-time college students' time use and its consequences in terms of exam performance and skill acquisition. In particular, the results of our initial investigation suggest the ubiquity of today’s technologies, especially the Internet, has significant and frequently overlooked consequences for student engagement in general and for their consumption of content for learning in particular. Further, future studies are needed to unravel the complex relationship that exists between learning technologies, students' time use and their academic performance. The paper concludes by highlighting a number of possible avenues for future research in this area

Designing the Future Perfect: Developing a temporal understanding of the intentionality and generativity of organisational practices

The Quadrangular Conference on Technology, Organisations and Society: Organisational Practices within Contemporary Landscapes, Lancaster University, UK, 14 - 15 September, 2015According to Barbara Adam, 'time is such an obvious factor in social science that it is almost invisible'. Indeed, organisational researchers have relied upon taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of time and have built theories that are frequently silent about the temporal nature of our being in the world. This paper addresses two key questions about time: (i) which formulation(s) of time are most useful in our research, and (ii) how might we use such formulations to build better theory? In addressing the first question, two main formulations of time are examined. The first is frequently associated with research in the natural sciences and relates time to the sense of passing time expressed in successive readings of the clock. The second is typically associated with research in the social sciences and relates time to the experience of purposive, intentional, goal-directed behaviour. In order to build better theory, organisational scholars are encouraged to identify and classify the formulations of time that underpin their research, to evaluate the fit between those temporal assumptions and the goals of their research, and to investigate the extent to theories that are based on different assumptions about time can be combined or integrated

Designing the Future Perfect: Reorganising is Research Around the Axis of Intention

ECIS 2016: 24th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), 12-15 June 2016According to Barbara Adam, 'time is such an obvious factor in social science that it is almost invisible'. Indeed, Information Systems (IS) researchers have relied upon taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of time and have built theories that are frequently silent about the temporal nature of our being in the world. This paper addresses two key questions about time in IS research: (i) what formulations of time are available to us in our research and (ii) how can these formulations be used in a coherent way in our research? In addressing the first question, two meta-formulations of time are examined. The first relates time to the sense of passing time expressed in successive readings of the clock. The second relates time to the experience of purposive, intentional, goal-directed behaviour. Our proposal is that IS researchers should be encouraged to identify the formulations of time that underpin their research. Our goal is to provide a framework to allow IS researchers to evaluate the fit between the goals of research and the temporal assumptions being used to underpin it and ultimately to investigate the extent to theories that are based on different assumptions about time can be combined or integrated

An investigation of innovation and knowledge creation in virtual worlds

The Internet and World Wide Web have had, and continue to have, an incredible impact on our civilization. These technologies have radically influenced the way that society is organised and the manner in which people around the world communicate and interact. The structure and function of individual, social, organisational, economic and political life begin to resemble the digital network architectures upon which they are increasingly reliant. It is increasingly difficult to imagine how our 'offline' world would look or function without the 'online' world; it is becoming less meaningful to distinguish between the 'actual' and the 'virtual'. Thus, the major architectural project of the twenty-first century is to 'imagine, build, and enhance an interactive and ever changing cyberspace' (Lévy, 1997, p. 10). Virtual worlds are at the forefront of this evolving digital landscape. Virtual worlds have 'critical implications for business, education, social sciences, and our society at large' (Messinger et al., 2009, p. 204). This study focuses on the possibilities of virtual worlds in terms of communication, collaboration, innovation and creativity. The concept of knowledge creation is at the core of this research. The study shows that scholars increasingly recognise that knowledge creation, as a socially enacted process, goes to the very heart of innovation. However, efforts to build upon these insights have struggled to escape the influence of the information processing paradigm of old and have failed to move beyond the persistent but problematic conceptualisation of knowledge creation in terms of tacit and explicit knowledge. Based on these insights, the study leverages extant research to develop the conceptual apparatus necessary to carry out an investigation of innovation and knowledge creation in virtual worlds. The study derives and articulates a set of definitions (of virtual worlds, innovation, knowledge and knowledge creation) to guide research. The study also leverages a number of extant theories in order to develop a preliminary framework to model knowledge creation in virtual worlds. Using a combination of participant observation and six case studies of innovative educational projects in Second Life, the study yields a range of insights into the process of knowledge creation in virtual worlds and into the factors that affect it. The study’s contributions to theory are expressed as a series of propositions and findings and are represented as a revised and empirically grounded theoretical framework of knowledge creation in virtual worlds. These findings highlight the importance of prior related knowledge and intrinsic motivation in terms of shaping and stimulating knowledge creation in virtual worlds. At the same time, they highlight the importance of meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge) in terms of guiding the knowledge creation process whilst revealing the diversity of behavioural approaches actually used to create knowledge in virtual worlds and. This theoretical framework is itself one of the chief contributions of the study and the analysis explores how it can be used to guide further research in virtual worlds and on knowledge creation. The study’s contributions to practice are presented as actionable guide to simulate knowledge creation in virtual worlds. This guide utilises a theoretically based classification of four knowledge-creator archetypes (the sage, the lore master, the artisan, and the apprentice) and derives an actionable set of behavioural prescriptions for each archetype. The study concludes with a discussion of the study’s implications in terms of future research

Knowledge Creation: Hidden Driver of Innovation in the Digital Era

International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2013: Reshaping Society Through Information Systems Design, Milan, Italy, 15 - 18 December 2013The importance of knowledge creation and innovation for organizational success is well established. At the same time, emerging technologies are 'generative' platforms with the capacity to produce unprompted change. At its core, innovation is a process of creating and using new ideas and concepts. As such, innovation may be conceptualized as a special class of knowledge creation. Further, the knowledge creation process is a driver of innovation. The paper develops a model of organizational knowledge creation and innovation to pinpoint the moments in the knowledge creation process where innovation occurs. The utility of the framework is illustrated with data from case studies on knowledge creation in innovative virtual world projects, which in turn reveals a set of strategies for driving knowledge creation and innovation in firms. The research has important implications for IS research on emerging technologies and user-generated and crowd-sourced innovation

Autoethnography: Proposing a New Research Method for Information Systems Research

ECIS 2014 22nd European Conference on Information Systems, Tel Aviv, Israel, 9 - 11 June 2014Emerging technologies are facilitating the production of revised and novel forms of 'digital being' - combined frames of meaning, experience, and desired notions of performativity that change what and who we are. A number of theoretical perspectives (e.g. Agential Realism and Sociomateriality) have emerged that seek to address this new reality but have struggled to grapple with the relationship between technology and the things that constitute a human in a psychological sense. In this paper, we argue that IS researchers have been hampered by the paucity of established research methods that are suited for the investigation of emerging digital systems and new forms of digital being. We believe that the IS community has made a serious error by ignoring repeated calls for the use of ethnographic methods in the field. We also feel that autoethnographic methods are highly suited to the task of conducting research on the digitally mediated experiences in everyday activities and in facilitating the development of new theories of digital being. The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical introduction to autoethnography and to explain how IS researchers might do and write autoethnography. The paper focuses on the challenges associated with using an autoethnographic approach in digitally mediated research settings. The paper also focuses on how IS researchers should evaluate autoethnographic research because the main challenge for ethnographic IS research has always been the evaluation of it