Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Volume 28, Issue 2, Pages 149-172Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/0960085X.2018.1524418
Keywords
Kieran Conboy; Brian Pentland; Paradox; innovation practices; digital; artefact; affordances; qualitative field study; PowerPoint; modelling tools
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Digital artefacts are increasingly used for supporting innovation practices, implying a growing need to better understand their role in different contexts. In this paper, we study how digital artefacts enable and constrain innovation practices by means of an in-depth, multi-year qualitative field study at a software firm. Analysing the usage of PowerPoint, as a dominant digital innovation artefact, we identify three paradoxes - conflicting yet interdependent tensions of digital artefacts in innovation practices: (1) Freedom and Captivity, (2) Clarity and Ambiguity, and (3) Scarcity and Abundance. Via a dialectic synthesis of the three paradoxes and an extension to modelling tools, we develop a substantive theory of the paradoxical effects of digital artefacts on innovation practices. We discuss theoretical implications for research on affordances and outline a path for research on IT paradoxes. We also offer practical implications by illustrating the paradoxical effects of using digital innovation artefacts and suggesting appropriate coping strategies.
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