Innovation diffusion theory provides a useful perspective on one of the most persistently challenging topics in the IT field, namely, how to improve technology assessment, adoption and implementation. For this reason, diffusion is growing in popularity as a reference theory for empirical studies of information technology adoption and diffusion, although no comprehensive review of this body of work has been published to date. This paper presents the results of a critical review of eighteen empirical studies published during the period 1981-1991. Conclusive results were most likely when the adoption context closely matched the contexts in which classical diffusion theory was developed (for example, individual adoption of personal-use technologies) or when researchers extended diffusion theory to account for new factors specific to the IT adoption context under study. Based on classical diffusion theory and other recent conceptual work, a framework is developed to guide future research in IT diffusion. The framework maps two classes of technology (ones that conform closely to classical diffusion assumptions versus ones that do no0 against locus of adoption (individual versus organizational), resulting in four IT adoption contexts. For each adoption context, variables impacting adoption and diffusion are identified. Additionally, directions for future research are discussed. 1.

What explains differences in firms' abilities to acquire competitive capabilities? In this paper we propose that embeddedness, in terms of firms' network of bridging ties and linkages to regional institutions, are important sources of variation in firms' acquisition of competitive capabilities. We argue that firm networks rich in bridging ties and firms' participation in regional institutions are critical vehicles for accessing new information, ideas, and opportunities leading to the acquisition of competitive capabilities in geographical clusters. Hypotheses are tested on a stratified random sample of 227 job shop manufacturers located in several regions of the US Midwest using data gathered from a mailed questionnaire. Results from structural equation modeling broadly support the embeddedness hypotheses and suggest a number of novel insights about the link between firms' networks and competitive capabilities.

Manufacturers customarily provide only a few product variants to address the average needs of users in the major segments of markets they serve. When user needs are highly heterogeneous, this approach leaves many seriously dissatisfied. One solution is to enable users to modify products on their own using "innovation toolkits." We explore the effectiveness of this solution in an empirical study of Apache security software. We find high heterogeneity of need in that field, and also find that users modifying their own software to be significantly more satisfied than non-innovating users. We propose that the "user toolkits" solution will be useful in many markets characterized by heterogeneous demand.

We provide a theoretical explanation, based on Schumpeterian growth theory, for the divergence in per-capita income that has taken place between countries since the mid 19th Century, as well as for the convergence that took place between the richest countries during the second half of the 20th Century. The argument is based on the premise that technological change underwent a fundamental transformation in the 19th Century, associated with new scientific ideas and the increasingly scientific content of new technologies. We model this transformation as the introduction of a new method for producing innovations, which we call “modern R&D”. In order to use this method a country’s entrepreneurs must have at least some minimum level of skills, which depends on the technological frontier. Countries not fulfilling this requirement can only create new technologies through an older method, which we call “implementation”. A multi-country Schumpeterian growth model incorporating these ideas implies that countries will sort themselves into three groups. Those in the highest group will converge to an “R&D steady state”, while those in the intermediate group converge to an “implementation steady state”. Countries in both of these groups will grow at the same rate in the long run, as a result of technology transfer, but inequality of per-capita income between the two groups will increase during the transition to the

Although organizational innovation with information technology is often carefully considered, bandwagon phenomena indicate that much innovative behavior may nevertheless be of the “me too” variety. In this essay, we explore such differences in innovative behavior. Adopting a perspective that is both institutional and cognitive, we introduce the notion of mindful innovation with IT. A mindful firm attends to an IT innovation with reasoning 1 Jane Webster was the accepting senior editor for this paper. Swanson & Ramiller/Innovating Mindfully with IT RESEARCH ARTICLE grounded in its own organizational facts and specifics. We contrast this with mindless innovation, where a firm’s actions betray an absence of such attention and grounding. We develop these concepts by drawing on the recent appearance of the idea of mindfulness in the organizational literature, and adapting it for application to IT innovation. We then bring mindfulness and mindlessness together in a larger theoretical synthesis in which these apparent opposites are seen to interact in ways that help to shape the overall landscape of opportunity for organizational innovation with IT. We conclude by suggesting several promising new research directions.

ABSTRACT The paper examines rationales relevant to the evolving roles of government intervention and private venture capital industry in the commercialization of new technologies. Speci�cally, government interventions may aim to mitigate market and systemic failures, eliminate structural rigidities, or respond to anticipatory myopia. Ex ante, constructive, and ex post evaluations are discussed in relation to the possibility that agencies responsible for policy implementation may intervene even in situations in which the bene�ts of their interventions are not necessarily transparent. 1.

This article describes how knowledge management systems can enhance the effectiveness of teams that analyze complex, non-recurring problems by improving the way that team composition evolves. Knowledge management systems reduce the costs of searching for specialized knowledge resources, making it more likely that teams will incorporate a diversity of knowledge. Drawing on the concept of requisite variety, this article argues that increases in team knowledge variety lead to improvements in the effectiveness of the solutions generated by a team, which in turn enhance their organization's adaptive ability. This process also reinforces the existing distribution of knowledge within the organization, increasing employee specialization. The author develops a series of propositions and combines them into a research model from which he draws implications for researchers and managers. The author would like to thank Yolande Chan, Brent Gallupe, James McKeen, Darren Meister, David Ramsden and Sandy Staples for their insight and advice in preparing this article. Many thanks also to the guest editor and anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article, and to the Queen’s Management Research Centre for Knowledge-Based Enterprises

Recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have provided a substantial push towards the codification of organisational knowledge and practices. It is argued that codification, and the subsequent delegation of organisational memory to software, entails fundamental structural transformations to knowledge and routines as these are reconfigured and replicated in the form of new computer-embedded representations. The paper demonstrates that the process of embedding knowledge and routines in software holds fundamental implications for the ability of heterogeneous organisational groups, functions and communities to coordinate their efforts and share knowledge across function-, discipline- and taskspecific boundaries.

Strategic alliances between ERP software vendors, their implementation partners and clients, for knowledge sharing and integrated knowledge management across the ERP life-cycle, hold promise for leveraging scarce expertise and human resources, thereby streamlining implementation and promoting growth of the market. SAP’s significant market presence offers a unique opportunity to encourage such a tripartite ERP knowledge management framework. This industry-academe collaborative study will account for existing knowledge management facilities, approaches and technology; explore alternative responsibility and role sharing scenarios; define a broad system architecture; and propose strategies to promote the framework across SAP, its clients and partners.

This essay was prepared as a ‘framework paper ’ for the Center for Knowledge-Based Enterprises at Queen’s University. The objective of the Center is to promote research in the general area of knowledge management, which includes defining specific research programs within this broad mandate. One such program concerns knowledge transfer