IT Innovation Persistence: An Oxymoron?

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:13:00 GMT

Abstract: A company’s ability to innovate in IT over time is a key competitive advantage. Empirical results from the study of a dataset consisting over 2000 firms support the belief that the ability to innovate in IT over time is not easily replicated by competing firms. Results from the study suggest that the probability that a firm will remain innovative in IT in the following year is relatively high (68%), while the probability that the firm will transition from its non-innovative state and become innovative in IT is relatively small (9%). This article concludes that the firm’s ability to innovate is diffused across people, processes, and products, and based on the decisions taken in prior years.

This articles conclusion is that systematic innovators tend to take a long-term view and continue to experiment and innovate in IT even during the period of falling IT budgets. Experience of companies like Intel and Global Crossing shows that the capability to innovate with IT is neither instant and nor inexpensive. Thus, business managers should invest to innovate in IT only if it makes sense in the context of company’s business strategy and not because of pressure from peers, vendors or external sources.

Published: Communications of the ACM, May 2010

Authors: Theophanis C. Stratopoulos, and Jee-Hae Lim

Link: IT Innovation Persistence

Learning to Build an IT Innovation Platform

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 01:24:00 GMT

Abstract: Creative adaption of existing business processes to address new customer needs defines the way forward for today’s business leaders. Bellwether technology firms like Amazon and Google continuously mine available systems and data to generate new customer solutions. This article concludes that new sources of value emerge when competencies of an organization are matched with customer requirements within key business processes.

An IT Innovation platform constitutes of these three forms of adaption -

• Customer Focus,

• Nurturing Individual Creativity

• Process Focus.

The article concludes by offering many prescriptive guidelines for managers, one of them being that the customer may not always be aware about what they want. A successful manager understands customer’s business well enough to anticipate emerging business challenge and offer solutions that are yet to be recognized.

Published: Communications of the ACM, August 2009

Authors: Rajiv Kohli, and Nigel P. Melville

Link: Build IT Innovation Platform

Innovation @ Merage - UCI Paul Merage School of Business : Information Technology

IT Innovation Persistence: An Oxymoron?

Learning to Build an IT Innovation Platform