Diffusion of innovation theory for information technology decision making in organisational strategy

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there has been rapid change in technologies and their innovations. Organisations’ continuous increasing reliance on information technology (IT) is therefore challenged. This has inevitably caused many organisations to adopt “quick fixes”, to support and enable their strategies. What is even more problematic is how the technologies are innovatively used or diffused, which is expected to transform, support and enable competiveness. This study has two primary objectives: (i) to examine the factors that influence the diffusion of information systems (IS) and technologies (IS/IT) in enabling and supporting organisational strategy and (ii) to gain a better understanding of how decisions are made in the course of applying technologies for organisational strategy. The Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) was employed as a lens to examine influencing factors and how decisions are made in applying technologies for organisational strategy. The factors that influence the diffusion of IS/IT includes organisational structure, communication across the hierarchy, the obligatory passage point (OPP) of people, know-how of technologies and implication of process. The decisions that guide the way in which IS/IT are diffused to support and enable organisational strategy were found to be threefold as depicted in the framework: organisation, technology and governance.