Innovating with Information and Communication Technologies: Social and Organizational Engagement and Transformation
Innovation, generally understood as new ways of doing things, has been subjected to increasing intensity of academic inquiry since the Second World War and from a variety of perspectives. The simple notion of doing something differently translates into a complexity of pragmatic and theoretical concerns, for example; innovation governance, processes of innovation, performance, and benchmarking of innovation. As a conceptual clearing, the study of innovation has brought together a diversity of academics and practitioners in a rich debate over the decades. Politicians seek to understand how investing in innovation will help create wealth, managers wish to understand how to improve the organisation’s ability to more effectively innovate to meet changing market demands. For commercial- and public organisations, innovation is increasingly seen as a key concern.
Technological inventions brought into social- and organisational practice is one of the cornerstones of innovation. As such, innovation has always been at the core of the Information Systems field. Anytime an organisation instantiates an assemblage of hard- and software, data conversion processes, new working arrangements etc, this is a case of innovation - for better and for worse. Some of the traditional areas of concern within Information Systems have studied innovation in terms of:
the appropriate systems development processes bringing about new socio-technical arrangements;
understanding how ICT innovation can render organisations more effective; issues related to the diffusion of ICT innovations;
the role of ICT innovation for inter-organisational operations and in markets.
However, new areas of concern have emerged as a result of changes in innovation systems, the market, and in regulatory regimes. In the shadow of an economic downturn, the 9th Social Study of ICT workshop will explore core concerns within and beyond innovation with ICT. The workshop will engage a group of prominent scholars and business leaders in a debate of the role of innovation with ICT in a downturn. The workshop will discuss the role of innovation with ICT in terms of listening to and engaging customers in ongoing relationships, and it will explore innovation and emerging technologies, and the destructive aspects of innovation.
Keynote: DEG 2.0 - How current advances in Digital Era Governance are pioneering a whole new level in state-citizen relations in the UK, USA and elsewhere
Patrick Dunleavy, Professor, Department of Government, LSE
Video [136MB]
Emerging Technology Innovation
Harro van Lente, Associate Professor, Department of Innovation and Environmental Studies, University of Utrecht
Video [98MB]
Practitioner Panel: Innovating in a Downturn
This panel will address the role of innovation in a downturn. What are the opportunities for innovating at this juncture? What kinds of IT innovation are emerging in a downturn? Does a downturn influence the innovation process?
Chair: Carsten Sorensen, Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics.
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Dave Birch, Hyperion Consult
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Michael Mainelli, Visiting Professor, ISIG, Department of Management, London School of Economics
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Tony Clayton, UK Office for National Statistics
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Paul Barrett, PA Consulting.
Video [115MB]
Innovation and Collaboration
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David Elton, PA Consulting,
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Carsten Sorensen, Senior Lecturer, ISIG, Department of Management, London School of Economics
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Leslie Willcocks, Professor, ISIG, Department of Management, London School of Economics
Video [111MB]
Innovating Experiential Computing
Youngjin Yoo, Associate Professor, Management Information Systems, Temple University
Podcast
Academic Panel: Destructive innovation
Innovation can both be associated with the constructive establishment of something new and with the destruction of the old. How can we understand such destructive forces a priori? To what extent are destructive elements of innovation the result of unintended consequences? What are the potential destructive forces of new open innovation strategies?
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Natalie Mitev, Senior Lecturer, ISIG, Department of Management, London School of Economics
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Dave Wastell, Professor, Nottingham University Business School.
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Sarah Otner, PhD Candidate, Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour Group, Department of Management, LSE
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James Cornford, Principal Research Associate, Institute for Policy and Practice, Newcastle University
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Tony Bryant, Professor, Leeds Metropolitan University
Video [118MB]
The Information Systems and Innovation Group is a centre of expertise on information technology innovation and concomitant organisational and social change. For more information on the group please click here.