Continuous Information System Use from Routine Perspective - Case Idea Management Tools

Digital technologies are gaining an increasingly pervasive role in all aspects of contemporary business. This extends to innovation too, as companies increasingly use information systems to enable novel forms of organizing development efforts. One concretization of this is the utilization of idea management tools (IMTs) - online platforms that allow sharing and discussion of new ideas for innovations regardless of time, space, or organizational boundaries. They represent one of the most popular types of information systems explicitly designed to facilitate innovation. While the potential benefits of IMTs are manifold, the implementation of new information systems is seldom a straightforward process. Unless meaningful continuous use of the IMTs is successfully fostered, the expected business and cultural impacts are likely to remain unrealized. Given this, the present study examines the use of idea management tools and its evolution through two case studies that I discuss in four essays and this summary part of my dissertation. The phenomenon is examined through theoretical lenses of organizational routines and continuous information system use. Focus is in particular on 1) what kind of use routine emerges around a newly introduced idea management tool, 2) how does the use develop over time, and 3) what kind of issues can emerge in the interfaces between incumbent organizational routines and use of the tool. The results of the study suggest that innovating with idea management tools exhibits key distinctions compared to the traditional ideals of innovation efforts and is perceived disconnected from regular work and innovation related responsibilities. Further, while organizational actors are keen to try out idea management tools, continuous use at the individual level proves out to be somewhat problematic to foster. Unmanaged interdependencies between use routine and other organizational routines can create dynamics that hinder the legitimacy of the emergent use routine in various ways. Thus results of the study draw attention to how continuous information system use is dependent not only on fostering the formation of new routines but managing the various interfaces between the emergent routine and incumbent organizational routine clusters.