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So that’s what the impact of IT innovation looks like? Examining the socio-technical dynamics of public service innovation

Noel Carroll (Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland)

Journal of Enterprise Information Management

ISSN: 1741-0398

Article publication date: 12 September 2016

740

Abstract

Purpose

Services comprise of socio-technical (human and technological) factors which exchange various resources and competencies. Service networks are used to transfer resources and competencies, yet they remain an underexplored and “invisible” infrastructure. Considering the growth in technological investment in recent years, this research sets out to model the impact of IT-enabled innovation on a service network. In response to the growing importance placed on understanding these complexities, the field of “service science” has emerged to guide the effective design, implementation, and management of service systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of introducing an IT-enabled innovation in a public service network.

Design/methodology/approach

This is achieved through a case study of an Exam Administration Service Department (EASD) where an electronic grading system was introduced to improve the EASD grading process. Data are analysed using both actor-network theory (ANT) as a theoretical lens and social network analysis (SNA) for empirical purposes to visualise the impact of IT-enabled innovation on a service environment.

Findings

The research described in this paper makes a useful contribution to the service science and IT innovation community both in terms of its topic (public service networks) and in terms of its theoretical framework and application methods (ANT and SNA).

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates how we can investigate the impact of IT-enabled innovation within a service network. Most notably, the application of SNA enables us to visualise the impact of technology and gain insights on the socio-technical dynamics associated with introducing service innovations.

Keywords

Citation

Carroll, N. (2016), "So that’s what the impact of IT innovation looks like? Examining the socio-technical dynamics of public service innovation", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 677-705. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-07-2014-0072

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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