Aspects of Innovation and Technology Management

IS482

Half/ full unit

Half

Dr N Mitev, Room NAB 3.27

Dr J Liebenau, Room NAB 3.26

This is an optional course for the MSc in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems and MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management.

It is a half-unit version of IS474 Innovation and Technology Management and cannot be taken with the latter course.

The course examines technology management and innovation studies in order to understand the emergence, success and failure of technological systems, and explore the relevance to information systems implementation and management.

The course introduces different theoretical perspectives on innovation studies and technology management. Topics include:

• systems and management approaches to technology development;
• sociology of technology, science and technology studies.

• software and information systems failures,
• IT expertise
• decision-making,
• project escalation in information systems projects, and
• technology disasters.

Lent term

Lectures

10 x 2 hour

Lent term

Classes

10x 1 hours

Classes are based on reading and discussing relevant papers from the study pack. Students are also required to give a short presentation outlining their case-based individual essay before finalizing it; it forms the basis for group discussions and feedback from the teacher. This presentation contributes to assessing the individual essay.

• H.K Anheier (Ed.), When Things go Wrong: Organizational Failures and Breakdowns, Sage Publications, 1999.

• M Bauer (Ed), Resistance to New Technology: Nuclear Power Information Technology and Biotechnology, CUP 1995;

• M Biagioli (Ed), The Science Studies Reader, Routledge, 1999;

• J R Chiles, Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the edge of technology, HarperBusiness 2001;

• H Collins & T Pinch, The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology, Cambridge University Press, 1998;

• H Drummond, Escalation in Decision-making: The Tragedy of Taurus, Oxford University Press, 1996;

• J Fagerberg, D.C. Mowery, and R.R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation (Series Oxford Handbooks in Business and Management), Oxford University Press, 2006

• P Hall, Great planning disasters, University of California Press 1982;

• J Howell, The Management of Innovation and Technology, Sage 2005;

• D MacKenzie, Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change, MIT Press, 1998;

• J McLaughlin, P Rosen, D Skinner & A Webster, Valuing Technology: organisations, culture and change, Routledge, London and New York, 1999;

• D Mowery & N Rosenberg, Paths of Innovation: technological change in 20th century America, Cambridge University Press, 1998;

• C Perrow, Normal Accidents: living with high-risk technologies, Basic Books, 1984;

• C Sauer, Why Information Systems Fail: A Case Study Approach, Alfred Bridge, 1993;

• D Vaughan, The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA, University of Chicago Press, 1996;

An individual essay (up to 5,000 words) based on case material, in the Lent term.