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Learning to build an IT innovation platform

Published: 01 August 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Introduction
Information Technology (IT) pervades every aspect of a firm's value chain as a vast electronic network of interconnected applications and data. Managers perceive the immense potential of this complex infrastructure to enhance products and processes and create altogether new ones. However, some have gone a step further and determined how to harness untapped IT business value again and again to create innovative and valuable applications by reconfiguring existing systems in new ways. Creative adaptation of existing functionality (such as broadband over power lines) to enable entirely new applications (such as real-time power grid monitoring) rules the day for these forward-thinking business leaders.
What separates successful IT innovators from others? Is luck a primary driver, or are there deliberate actions that management can take to raise the odds of success? Given substantial implications for business performance, we set out to explore this question by interviewing senior IS and business executives with demonstrated track records of extracting untapped IT business value from existing IT infrastructural assets. Our objective was to uncover underlying mechanisms linking organizational actions with innovation outcomes.
What we learned is that while serendipity can sometimes play a role, developing a specialized set of competencies, which we call an IT innovation platform, plays a much larger and decisive role. IT capabilities drive innovation by enabling organizations to redesign business processes, craft a competitive strategy, and identify and cater to customer preferences. As we discuss below, understanding what these competencies are, how they are developed, and how they work together holistically can yield significant new sources of growth and bolster performance. While our research is exploratory in nature and requires rigorous testing, we believe that this new perspective on IT business value expands managerial understanding of how to extract ever-greater value from existing IT assets.

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  • (2021)The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the New Paradigm of Corporate GovernanceDigital Strategies in a Global Market10.1007/978-3-030-58267-8_9(117-129)Online publication date: 3-Jan-2021
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Published In

cover image Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM  Volume 52, Issue 8
A Blind Person's Interaction with Technology
August 2009
132 pages
ISSN:0001-0782
EISSN:1557-7317
DOI:10.1145/1536616
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 August 2009
Published in CACM Volume 52, Issue 8

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Cited By

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  • (2024)How Information Technology Overcomes Deficiencies for Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Closed Innovation vs. Open InnovationInformation Systems Research10.1287/isre.2021.009635:4(1981-2012)Online publication date: Dec-2024
  • (2021)Analysing perceived role of blockchain technology in SCM context for the manufacturing industryInternational Journal of Production Research10.1080/00207543.2021.188376159:11(3398-3429)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2021
  • (2021)The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the New Paradigm of Corporate GovernanceDigital Strategies in a Global Market10.1007/978-3-030-58267-8_9(117-129)Online publication date: 3-Jan-2021
  • (2020)A combined variance and process perspective on IT culture and IT usage leading to the concept of IT acculturationSystèmes d'information & management10.3917/sim.202.0033Volume 25:2(33-72)Online publication date: 27-Jul-2020
  • (2017)Impact of Information Technologies, Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation on the Organizational PerformanceEntrepreneurship10.4018/978-1-5225-1923-2.ch083(1933-1952)Online publication date: 2017
  • (2017)Mitigating Diminishing Returns to R&DInformation Systems Research10.1287/isre.2017.071728:4(812-827)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2017
  • (2016)How information technology strategy and investments influence firm performanceMIS Quarterly10.25300/MISQ/2016/40.1.1040:1(223-245)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2016
  • (2015)The Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Responding to Digital Disruption: A Factor-Based Study of the Newspaper IndustryJournal of Management Information Systems10.1080/07421222.2015.102938032:1(39-81)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2015
  • (2013)What Is Your Global Innovation Strategy?IT Professional10.1109/MITP.2013.10215:6(2-6)Online publication date: Nov-2013
  • (2012)Information technology and firm profitabilityMIS Quarterly10.5555/2208955.220896836:1(205-224)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2012
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