To make or fake sense of information technology? : strategic ambiguity as a source of radical change

• While Information Technology (IT) resources signal different meanings to different actors, strategy scholarship advocates the establishing of tight links between the functional role and strategic purpose of IT resources. Particularly, the “interpretative flexibility” of IT resources is depicted as an obstacle for effective strategy implementation that needs to be overcome through planned deployment, training, and control. We challenge this conventional assumption. Through applying a practice lens in a qualitative multi-site case study, we identify four types of IT resource configurations, theorizing IT resource ambiguity as a source for radical change. Ultimately, we observe how, when, and why ambiguous uses of IT can form critical elements of new IT strategy practices, and suggest several implications of the observed IT resource ambiguity for strategy and management research.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

IT strategy

Strategic ambiguity

Interpretative flexibility

Sensemaking

Sensegiving.

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)