Innovation in using IT: understanding the impact of knowledge absorptive capacity on academic librarians

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this study is to examine the effect of organizational levers and information technology (IT) absorptive capacity on librarians' innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis survey-analytic study investigated the librarians who were working in the libraries of the medical sciences universities in Iran. The data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire distributed randomly among the members of the sample. The SEM and the LISREL software for data analysis were used.FindingsIt was found that the librarians' job autonomy and fairness of rewards had an effect on acquiring new knowledge and applying transformed knowledge. Although the results did not confirm the effect of the librarians' job autonomy on knowledge assimilation and transformation, they showed a direct and positive effect of fairness of rewards on knowledge assimilation and transformation. Furthermore, this study confirmed the effect of acquiring and applying new knowledge about the library IT on enhancing the librarians' innovation. The effect of knowledge assimilation and transformation, from the application of IT in libraries, on the librarians' innovation was not confirmed.Practical implicationsLearning about the effect of organizational levers on librarians' knowledge absorptive capacities, in terms of applying technologies, to create innovation is an important issue. This will elucidate the gaps of disregarding the effect of organizational levers and librarians' knowledge absorptive capacities on librarians' innovation, and will pave the way for better planning to achieve the libraries' innovative goals.Originality/valueThis is among the few articles that have helped to fill the existing theoretical and research gap in knowledge absorptive capacity in Library and Information Science (LIS). In addition, this article has made a valuable contribution to understanding the role of IT knowledge absorptive capacity as a mediator variable between the organizational levers and librarians' innovation.

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“…New technologies have improved library services in the past decade (Lee, 2021). Kaffashan Kakhki et al (2022) investigated how organizational levers and information technology (IT) influence how librarians acquire and apply innovation.…”

“…Use of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud technology, Internet of things (IoT) and other innovations to improve library services New technologies have improved library services in the past decade (Lee, 2021). Kaffashan Kakhki et al (2022) investigated how organizational levers and information technology (IT) influence how librarians acquire and apply innovation.…”

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“…Hence, the library must ensure it meets the needs of users without compromising access to information as underscored in SDGs 4 and 10 either through traditional or emerging technologies. Notwithstanding, the balancing act of traditional vs emerging technologies juxtaposed the current major challenge facing higher education libraries is the ability to create balance between innovation, technology, skilled staff and user needs (Aslam, 2022;Dalili Saleh et al, 2022;Ducas et al, 2020;Kaffashan Kakhki et al, 2022;Loghmani Khozani et al, 2022;Mohideen et al, 2022;Yu et al, 2023a, b).…”

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“…Library Hi Tech is very concerned with technological innovation. Readers may be interested in library information service innovation (Wójcik, 2019; Lee, 2021), AI innovation for libraries (Okunlaya et al ., 2022; Huang, 2022), organizational learning aspects (Zhou et al ., 2022) and knowledge absorptive capacity aspects (Kaffashan Kakhki et al ., 2022).…”