The Socio-Technical Dimension of Inertia in Digital Transformations

Abstract

Abstract

A Preliminary Design of Privacy Ontology for Smart Toys

“…The Marriam-Webster dictionary offers the following definition of inertia: "A property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force". Although valuable, this definition draws mainly from the original field of Physics and doesn't provide a clear understanding of what inertia represents beyond a generic idea of "resistance to change" (Schmid et al, 2017). Building on the concept of resistance to change, scholars from different backgrounds engaged with the study of the role and impact of inertia on organisations.…”

“…Once again, IS scholars conceptualize inertia as resistance to change or, as Besson and Rowe (2012) do, "(…) the degree of stickiness of the organization being transformed" (Besson & Rowe, 2012, p. 105). Although valuable, many of these contributions seem to look at inertia in organizations as an outcome of human habits or structural configurations (Schmid et al, 2017). However, the emphasis put on the role of human actors or organizational structures prevents IS literature to account for technological artefacts as a source of inertia (Schmid et al, 2017).…”

“…Although valuable, many of these contributions seem to look at inertia in organizations as an outcome of human habits or structural configurations (Schmid et al, 2017). However, the emphasis put on the role of human actors or organizational structures prevents IS literature to account for technological artefacts as a source of inertia (Schmid et al, 2017). In other words, ICT agency has been largely neglected in IS literature focusing on inertia.…”

“…Inertia is a valuable construct to investigate the reasons why public organizations face challenges and obstacles in the process of designing and delivering ICT-based emergency policies. Specifically, we select inertia for two main reasons: (a) inertia offers a theoretical explanation to why actors within organizations in charge of implementing new policies prefer relying on systems they are familiar with (Kim, Cha, Cho, & Lee, 2020); (b) inertia is a very useful concept to appreciate how technological systems in use within organizations create legacy and patterns that influence the new policies that rely on existing ICT solutions (Schmid, Recker, & Vom Brocke, 2017).…”

Orchestrating a digital platform ecosystem to address societal challenges: A robust action perspective

“…Digital transformation is associated with fundamental changes in elements of technology, processes, structure, identity, culture, value propositions, and strategies within organizations (Vial, 2019). It involves overcoming sociotechnical inertia due to such factors as legacy technologies and practices, and a focus on helping a focal organization to adapt to its changing environment (Schmid et al, 2017). Digital transformation is said to differ from IT-function-driven or enterprise systems-enabled organizational transformation phenomena widely studied in previous eras of IS research (Besson and Rowe, 2012; Drechsler et al, 2020: 522).…”