Module 8 - Digital Innovation: Issues – Technology Issues

Overview
Module 8 focusses on Technology, Integration and Technology Management Issues. New
technology brings new challenges and issues. Integrating new technology with existing technology
and managing these technologies provide organisations with a potential competitive advantage
over other organisations.

Module Objectives

This module discusses the following impacts (problems and issues) related to digital innovations
with regards to
1. Technology
2. Integration
3. Management

Technology Issues

Technology is part of our life. Mobile technologies have penetrated our life so much that a study
indicates that once people board off an aeroplane, within 6 seconds, turn their mobile
technologies on. This is to communicate, check emails, interact on Facebook etc.

While ubiquitous refers to availability everywhere, mundane refers to commonplace. The digital
technologies are so commonplace; we don’t even notice them anymore. But these technologies
have a profound influence on us. We are interested in understanding a range of long term impacts
created by these so called digital innovations so that, as IS Managers, we can better plan and
prepare our organisation.

Reading

Selected Reading Dourish, P, Graham, C, Randall, D & Rouncefield, M 2010, ‘Theme issue on
social interaction and mundane technologies’, Pers Ubiquit Comput, vol. 14, pp. 171–80.

Read the first section ‘Introduction’ to understand what mundane technologies are and how they
influence a society. This understanding should provide you with an idea as to how an organisation
would be influenced by these mundane technologies,

Luyckx, 1999 states human society is inextricably engaged in a far reaching transition to an
information based economy. This is inherently a global phenomenon which is both making and
shaping the way societies perceive and respond to the major policy challenges facing them. It
offers mankind immense possibilities but the only and evident certainty is that it is changing
profoundly social and individual behaviour, expectations and options. It is creating a new era
where immaterial knowledge becomes the key determinant of economic well-being. The value of
capital is increasingly based on access to knowledge not labour. The pressure to continuously
acquire new skills in order to remain economically active has never been greater.

Work Life Balance

Technology allows us access to information 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Most of the time this is
not just personal information but work information as well. The lines between work hours and
personal hours have blurred.

Haejung Yun , William J. Kettinger & Choong C. Lee (2012) identifies that technology which is
enabling people to work anywhere is creating negative effectives on their work-life commitments.
Even though organisations are benefiting from this the conflict between work and life will
continue until organisations can create a “work smart” focus which enables workers to have the
flexibility but also the control to manage this new capability.

Reading

Selected Reading Haejung Yun , William J. Kettinger & Choong C. Lee (2012) A New Open Door:
The Smartphone's Impact on Work-to-Life Conflict, Stress, and Resistance, International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, 16:4, 121-152

Read up to page 132 before the Research Methodology section
Read the conclusion page 144 & 145

In this article it outlines the effect Digital Innovation can have on one’s life and the subsequent
impact on family and society. When new technology is developed and released the full impact is
seldom understood until the technology has been adopted.

The following two readings will give you an overview of the impact and issues (positive and
negative) related to digital innovation such as smartphones and cloud computing. Similar issues
can be researched about other digital innovations.

Reading

Selected Reading Unknown 2015, The Impact of Cloud, Fujitsu, USA.
http://www.fujitsu.com/lu/Images/wp-eiu-impact-of-cloud.pdf>.

Selected Reading Sarwar, M & Soomro, T 2012, 'Impact of Smartphone’s on Society', European
Journal of Scientific Research, vol. 98, no. 2, March 2013, p. 10.

Read both articles.

Business

From the smartphone it is clear to see with the readings that employees are connected to the
organisation longer than they have ever been in the history of mankind. With the increase in sales
of smartphones access the powerful computing power is within reach of most consumers, as such
this provides a great opportunity for organisations to expand their capabilities towards the mobile
frontier hoping to engage and retain larger numbers of customers.

While smartphones enable consumers access to high powered devices which were once exclusive
to organisations, organisation now have access to high powered computing through Cloud
Computing which was once only accessible at a large cost to organisations. This commoditisation
of innovations provides greater access to both consumers and organisations.

Education

Access to information is critical to Education. Once libraries and resources where the only source
of information for educators. With the explosion in the information age distance education and
access to resources enable students from all around the world to study courses like this one.
However, with access to so much information and so many capabilities this presents a distraction
for students. The distraction is not only in the form of social media, apps, news and many more
but also in the fact that a lot of the information available online is thoroughly researched and a lot
of the times is merely an individual’s interpretation or opinion.

Health

The health aspect of digital innovation is tremendous, with smart devices providing information
back to health professionals enables people access to very advanced health care. Systems which
can understand large volumes of information to find correlations and patterns far surpass the
capabilities of humans to identify the patterns and draw the conclusions. Digital innovation like
Watson from IBM are examples of these capabilities.

Technology and digital innovation can impact health as much as they can assist. Everything from
injuries and new conditions to anti-social behaviour as mentioned in the Ethics and Security.

Psychological

Digital innovation enables people and organisations to stay connected and provides a conduit for
communication. Technology has been proven to provide users with some psychological benefits,
memory training, reading, social bonds and networks. This can however go too far and a lot of
individuals are now addicted or dependant on technology to the extent that without technology
they would not be able to cope efficiently with the world around us.

An example of this would be to give a group of individuals a map book and ask then to drive
between two points purely using the map book. This could prove challenging to most who are
reliant on navigation software to direct them. In the coming years the same analogy will be able
to be used for people who use autonomous vehicles to go to work.

Social

Social aspects of smartphones and cloud computing are evident in social media, entertainment
and virtual communities. Websites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe provide individuals with access
to communities of users who are willing to support both emotionally and financially.

Social media provides a voice for consumers and an ability to directly communicate with
organisations in a public forum. This interaction provides benefits and impacts for many
organisations as brand reputation can be harmed instantly in a very public forum.

Understanding the impact of technology and the issues it may present enables an organisation or
entrepreneur to either exploit positive benefits or reduce negative impacts.
Exercise
Consider Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, what positive and negative effects do you think
these digital innovations will have on society?

Integration

The integration of digital innovation such as cloud computing, digital apps, artificial intelligence,
big data, analytics, sensors and other leading edge technology provides both technical and
business integration issues for organisations.

If we rewind time a little to the initial release of the Apple iPhone, although revolutionary this was
primarily aimed at the consumer market. As such the business world did not adopt the iPhone to
sometime later. Once apps and the ability to surf the internet were available on the iPhone
consumers started to pressure organisations to adopt and integrating the technology into the
business.

Reading

Selected Reading Zhu, K, Kraemer, KL & Xu, S 2006, 'The Process of Innovation Assimilation by
Firms in Different Countries: A Technology Diffusion Perspective on E-Business', Management
Science, vol. 52, no. 10, pp. 1557-76.

Read the entire article

Zhu, K, Kraemer, KL & Xu, S 2006 identify three stages of technology assimilation into an
organisation namely:
1. Initiation – awareness of innovation to evaluation.
2. Adoption – introduction of the technology within the business to solve a business problem.
3. Routinisation – widespread adoption of the technology.

Zhu, K, Kraemer, KL & Xu, S 2006 identify the following key findings from their research
1. Competition - too much competition is not necessarily good for technology assimilation
because it drives firms to chase the latest technologies without learning how to use
existing ones effectively
a. positively affects initiation and adoption,
b. negatively impacts routinisation
2. Large firms tend to enjoy resource advantages at the initiation stage, but have to
overcome structural inertia in later stages.
3. We also find that economic environments shape innovation assimilation: Regulatory
environment plays a more important role in developing countries than in developed
countries.
4. Technology readiness is the strongest factor facilitating assimilation in developing
countries.
5. Technology integration is the strongest factor for assimilation in developed countries This
implies as organisations become more digital, the key determinant of its assimilation shifts
from accumulation to integration of technologies.


Exercise
The research from Zhu, K, Kraemer, KL & Xu, S was published in 2006. How do you think the gap
between developing countries and developed countries or startup companies and established
companies would be impacted from new digital innovations and access to cloud computing?

With the decrease in the size of systems and the increase in specialised discrete applications
organisations with limited investment into technology will have a greater ability to initiate, adopt
and routinise digital innovations.

Management
Data and technology are vital assets of organisations to provide competitive advantage. As such
the management of these assets are critical to ensure the maximum benefit is being obtained
from the use of data and technology.

Nagarajan, K (2015) outlines an eight phase process to manage technology from the creation
phase to the decline phase.

Figure 1 : Strategic Technology Management System Life cycle
Source: Nagarajan, K (2015)

A technology enters an organisation in the creation phase and completes its service to the
organisation in the decline phase. At this phase the technology is retired or taken from service
and another technology takes over or in some circumstances the existing technology can be
rejuvenated returning the technology to a previous phase before eventually progressing the the
decline phase once again.

Reading

Selected Reading Nagarajan, K 2015, A brief course on technology management, New Age
International (P) Ltd., Publishers, Daryaganj, New Delhi, India.

Read Chapter 2

Digital innovation which is the commercialisation of an idea also requires management. Module 4
identified a way to determine the feasibility and viability of an idea and Module 5 provided a
framework to develop the idea.

Figure 2 : New product development process
Source: Nagarajan, K (2015)

Nagarajan, K (2015) provides a process to manage the idea from generation to commercialization.

Exercise
Why do you think Strategic Technology Management is essential for organisations?

Module Review Questions

1. Could the use and development Artificial Intelligence impact society and if so how?
 2. Why is integration of technology more of a challenge for establish companies as opposed
to less mature organisations?
3. Which phase of an organisation grow would most benefit from using a STMS?
a. Organisations in the startup
4. How could STMS be used to stimulate growth within an organisation?

Module Review Question Responses

1. Could the use and development Artificial Intelligence impact society and if so how?
a. Recently there has been a lot of fear around the use of Robotics and Artificial
Intelligence as it could potentially relate to job losses. This could potentially have a
large impact on society.
2. Why is integration of technology more of a challenge for establish companies as opposed
to less mature organisations?
a. More establish companies are often more complex with a mix of legacy and
modern technology. As such the integration capabilities of these companies are
normally more challenged than newer organisations built using more modern
technology.
3. Which phase of an organisation grow would most benefit from using a STMS?
a. Organisations in any phase trying to bring an idea to market would benefit from
STMS. In the startup phase the process could be of significant value to focus
resources.
4. How could STMS be used to stimulate growth within an organisation?
a. Generate new ideas, challenge new ideas and provide a framework to
commercialise ideas.

Module Summary

This module introduced the technology issues, integration issues and management issues. The
impact of technology on society has had and continues to have profound effects. In the next few
years with the introduction of artificial intelligence and other digital innovations this will not stop.
Integrating the technology into society and organisations seems a slow process from initiation
though adoption to routinization. Management of technology needs formalization in order to
exploit the impact, rejuvenate or retire technology.

References

Jordan, JM 2012, Information, technology, and innovation resources for growth in a connected
world, Wiley, Hoboken NJ,
http://ezproxy.usq.edu.au/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unisouthernqld/Doc?id=10630582
>.
Nagarajan, K 2015, A brief course on technology management, New Age International (P) Ltd.,
Publishers, Daryaganj, New Delhi, India.

Sarwar, M & Soomro, T 2012, 'Impact of Smartphone’s on Society', European Journal of Scientific
Research, vol. 98, no. 2, March 2013, p. 10.

Unknown 2015, The Impact of Cloud, Fujitsu, USA. http://www.fujitsu.com/lu/Images/wp-eiu-
impact-of-cloud.pdf>.

Zhu, K, Kraemer, KL & Xu, S 2006, 'The Process of Innovation Assimilation by Firms in Different
Countries: A Technology Diffusion Perspective on E-Business', Management Science, vol. 52, no.
10, pp. 1557-76.