Abstract
The concept of organizational assimilation of information technology (IT) innovations is under-explored in the research literature. Here we rethink the concept, focusing on assimilation in use, in particular. Taking an organizational learning perspective, we propose that experimentation in use serves as the assimilative engine, driving the innovation’s interpretation and routinization, leading in turn to its eventual conceptual sublimation and taken-for-grantedness. From this model, several new opportunities for research are identified.
Chapter PDF
Keywords
- Organizational Learning
- Focal Attention
- Customer Relationship Management
- Information System Research
- Organizational Routine
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Agarwal R., Tanniru, M., and Wilemon, D., “Assimilating Information Technology Innovation: Strategies and Moderating Influences,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 44,4, 1997, 347–358.
Armstrong, C. P., and Sambamurthy, V., “Information Technology Assimilation in Firms: The Influence of Senior Leadership and IT Infrastructure,” Information Systems Research, 10,4, 1999, 304–327.
Attewell, P.,“Technology Diffusion and Organizational Learning: the Case of Business Computing,” Organization Science, 3,1, 1992, 1–19.
Barley, S. R., and Tolbert, P. S., “Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links Between Action and Institution,” Organizational Studies, 18,1, 1997,93–117.
Cho, I., and Kim, Y.-G, “Critical Factors for Assimilation of Object-Oriented Programming Languages,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 18,3, 2001–2002, 125–156.
Cohen, W. M., and Levinthal, D. A., “Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Organizational Learning,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 1990, 128–152
Cooper, R. B., and Zmud, R. W., “Infomiation Technology Implementation Research: A Technological Diffusion Approach,” Management Science, 36,2, 1990, 123–139.
Crossan, M. M., Lane, H. L., and White, R. E, “An Organizational Learning Framework: From Intuition to Institution,” Academy of Management Review, 24,3, 1999, 522–537.
Cyert, R. M., and March, J. G, A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
Davenport, T. H., “Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 1998, 121–131.
DeSanctis, G, and Poole, M. S., “Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory,” Organization Science, 5,2, 1994, 121–147.
Dewar, R. D., and Dutton, J. E, “The Adoption of Radical and Incremental Changes: An Empirical Analysis,” Management Science, 32,11, 1986, 1422–1433.
DiMaggio, P. J., and Powell, W. W., “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review, 48, 1983, 147–160.
Dver, A., “Customer Relationship Management: The Good. The Bad. The Future,” Special Advertising Section, Business Week, April 28, 2003, 52–64.
Feldman, M. S., and Pentland, B. T, “Re-theorizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 48,1, 2003, 94–118.
Fichman, R. G., “The Diffusion and Assimilation of Information Technology Innovations,” in Zmud, R. (Ed.), Framing the Domains of IT Management Research, Pinnaflex Educational Resources, Cincinnati, OH, 2000.
Fichman, R. G., and Kemerer, C. F., “The Assimilation of Software Process Innovations: An Organizational Learning Perspective,” Management Science, 43,10, 1997, 1345–1363.
Fichman, R. G., and Kemerer, C. F., “The Illusory Diffusion of Innovation: An Examination of Assimilation Gaps,” Information Systems Research, 10,3, 1999,255–275.
Gallivan, M., “Organizational Adoption and Assimilation of Complex Technological Innovations: Development and Application of a New Framework,” Data Base, 32,3, 2001, 51–85.
Gasser, L., “The Integration of Computing and Routine Work,” ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 4,3, 1986, 225–250.
Grover, V., Fiedler, K., and Teng, J., “Empirical Evidence on Swanson’s Tri-Core Model of Information Systems Innovation,” Information Systems Research, 8,3, 1997, 273–287.
Grover, V., and Goslar, M., “The Initiation, Adoption and Implementation of Telecommunications Technologies in U.S. Organizations,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 10,1, 1993, 141–163
Hirt, S. G., and Swanson, E B., “Emergent Maintenance of ERP: New Roles and Relationships,” Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution, 13, 2001, 373–397.
Huber, G. P., “Organizational Learning: the Contributing Processes and the Literatures,” Organization Science, 2,1, 1991,88–115.
James, W., The Principles of Psychology. New York: Holt, 1890.
Kauffman, R.J., McAndrews, J., and Wang, Y-M., “Opening the ‘Black Box’ of Network Externalities in Network Adoption,” Information Systems Research, 11,1, 2000, 61–82
Klein, K. J., and Sorra, J. S., “The Challenge of Innovation Implementation,” Academy of Management Review, 21,4, 1996, 1055–1080.
Kling, R., and Iacono, S., “The Control of Information System Developments After Implementation,” Communications of the ACM, 27, 1984, 1218–1226.
Kwon, T. H., and Zmud, R. W., “Unifying the Fragmented Models of Information Systems Innovation,” in Boland, R. J., and Hirschheim, R A. (Eds.), Critical Issues in Information Systems Research, New York: Wiley, 1987, 227–251.
Leonard-Barton, D., “Implementation as Mutual Adaptation of Technology and Organization,” Research Policy, 17, 1988, 251–267.
Leonard-Barton, D., and Deschamps, I., “Managerial Influences in the Implementation of New Technology,” Management Science, 34,10, 1988, 1252–1265.
Levitt, B., and March, J. G., “Organizational Learning,” Annual Review of Sociology, 14, 1988,319–340.
Lewin, K., “Group Decision and Social Change,” in Swanson, G. E, Newcomb, T. M., and Hartley, E. L. (Eds.), Readings in Social Psychology. 2 nd Edition. Holt, New York, 1952, 459–473.
Lucas, H. C, Jr., Implementation The Key to Successful Information Systems, New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
March, J. G, “Footnotes to Organizational Change,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, 1981,563–577.
Markus, M.L., “Power, Politics, and MIS Implementation,” Communications of the ACM, 26,6, 1983, 430–445.
Markus, M. L., and Tannis, C, “The Enterprise Systems Experience-From Adoption to Success,” in Zmud, R. (Ed.), Framing the Domains of IT Management Research, Pinnaflex Educational Resources, Cincinnati, OH, 2000, 173–207.
Majchrzak, A., Rice, R.E, Malhotra, A., King, N., and Ba, S., “Technology Adaptation: The Case of a Computer-Supported Inter-Organizational Virtual Team,” Management Information Systems Quarterly, 24,4, 2000, 569–600.
Martinsons, M. G, and Schindler, F. R., “Organizational Visions for Technology Assimilation: The Strategic Roads to Knowledge-based Systems Success,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 42,1, 1995,9–18.
McMaster, T., Mumford, E, Swanson, E. B., Warboys, B., and Wastell, D. (Eds.), Facilitating Technology Transfer through Partnership, London: Chapman & Hall, 1997.
Meyer, A. D., and Goes, J. B., “Organizational Assimilation of Innovations: A Multilevel Contextual Analysis,” Academy of Management Journal, 31,4, 1988, 897–923.
Nelson, R. R., and Winter, S. G., An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982
Ocasio, W., “Towards an Attention-based View of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal, 18 (Summer Special Issue), 1997, 187–206.
Orlikowski, W. J., “CASE Tools as Organizational Change: Investigating Incremental and Radical Changes in Systems Development,” MIS Quarterly, 17,3, 1993, 309–340.
Orlikowski, W. J., “Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time: A Situated Change Perspective,” Information Systems Research, 7,1, 1996, 63–92
Orlikowski, W. J., “Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations,” Organization Science, 11,4, 2000, 404–428.
Pentland, B. T., and Reuter, H. H., “Organizational Routines as Grammars of Action,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 1994,484–510.
Phillips, N., and Hardy, C., Discourse Analysis Investigating Processes of Social Construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002
Polanyi, M., Personal Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
Purvis, R. L., Sambamurthy, V., and Zmud, R. W., “The Assimilation of Knowledge Platforms in Organizations: An Empirical Investigation,” Organization Science, 12,2, 2001, 117–135.
Ramiller, N. C, and Swanson, E. B., “Organizing Visions for IT and the IS Executive Response,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 20,1, 2003, 13–43.
Rice, R, and Roger, E., “Reinvention in the Innovation Process,” Knowledge Creation, Diffusion Utilization, 1,4, 1980,499–514.
Robey, D., Boudreau, M., and Rose, G. M., “Information Technology and Organizational Learning A Review and Assessment of the Literature,” Accounting, Management and Information Technologies 10,2, 2000, 125–155.
Robey, D., Ross, J. W., and Boudreau, M.-C, “Learning to Implement Enterprise Systems: An Exploratory Study of the Dialectics of Change”. Journal of Information Management Systems, 19,1, 2002, 17–46.
Robey, D., and Sahay, S., “Transforming Work Through Information Technology: A Comparative Case Study of Geographic Information Systems in County Government,” Information Systems Research, 7,1, March 1996, 93–110.
Rogers, E. M., Diffusion of Innovations, 4 th Edition, New York: Free Press, 1995.
Rose, J., and Kraemmergaard, P., “Dominant Technological Discourses in Action: Paradigmatic Shifts in Sense Making in the Implementation of an ERP System,” in Wynn, E. H., Whitley, E. A., Myers, M. D., and DeGross, J. I. (Eds.), Global and Organizational Discourse about Information Technology, Dordrecht Kluwer, 2003, 437462
Ross, J. W., “The ERP Revolution: Surviving versus Thriving,” MIT Sloan School, CISR Working Paper #307, 1999.
Saga, V. L, and Zmud, R. W., “The Nature and Determinants of IT Acceptance, Routinization, and Diffusion,” in Levine, L. (Ed.), Diffusion, Transfer and Implementation of Information Technology, North-Holland, 1994, 67–86.
Scott, W. R., Institutions and Organizations, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1995.
Shapiro, C, and Varian, H. R., Information Rules Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1999.
Simon, H. A., Administrative Behavior. Chicago, IL: Macmillan, 1947.
Swanson, E. B., Information System Implementation, Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1988.
Swanson, E. B., “Talking the IS Innovation Walk,” in Wynn, E H., Whitley, E. A., Myers, M. D., and DeGross, J. I. (Eds.), Global and Organizational Discourse about Information Technology, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003, 15–31.
Swanson, E. B., and Ramiller, N. C, “The Organizing Vision in Information Systems Innovation”, Organization Science, 8, 1997, 458–474.
Thompson, J. D., Organizations in Action, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
Tolbert, P. S., and Zucker, L. G., “Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880–1935,” Administrative Science Quarterly 30, 1983, 22–39.
Tyre, M. and Orlikowski, W., “Windows of Opportunity: Temporal Patterns of Technology Adaptation in Organizations,” Organization Science, 5,1, 1994,98–118.
Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., and Davis, F. D., “User Acceptance of Infonation Technology: Toward a Unified View,” Management Information System Quarterly, 27,3, 2003, 425–478.
Weick, K. E., Sensemaking in Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.
Weick, K. E, and Roberts, K. H, “Collective Mind in Organizations: Heedful Interrelating on Flight Decks,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 1993, 357–381.
Weiser, M., “The Computer for the 21 st Century,” Scientific American, September 1991, 94–100.
Zmud, R. W., and Apple, L. E., “Measuring Technology Incorporation/Infusion”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 9, 1992, 148–155.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this paper
Cite this paper
Swanson, E.B. (2004). How Is an IT Innovation Assimilated. In: Fitzgerald, B., Wynn, E. (eds) IT Innovation for Adaptability and Competitiveness. TDIT 2004. IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, vol 141. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8000-X_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8000-X_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-7999-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8000-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive