MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENT

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A critical analysis of ICT adoption: the strategy-as-practice perspective

Abstract

Purpose: The ubiquitous pace of innovation is spawning a multitude of ICT products that are both redefining the manner in which organisations operate and have the potential to engender organisations with strategic advantage through the adoption of these products. However, the challenges that this presents to organisations include developing agile strategies that cater for market instabilities, determining what technology to adopt, and ensuring that the appropriate technology is adopted. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to perform a critical analysis of ICT adoption in an attempt to determine the influence that the pace of technology has on organisations in their endeavour to stay abreast of their market environment and to develop a comprehensive ICT adoption framework.
Design/methodology/approach: This is an exploratory research, which concentrates on ICT adoption studies through the strategy-as-practice lens. Through critical analysis, the scientific literature was analysed to determine ICT adoption factors and to gain a better understanding of ICT adoption in the modern context. The principles of grounded theory were applied where repetitive reading of selected articles made it possible to identify factors that are associated with ICT adoption.
Findings: The study identified three key factors of ICT adoption, namely ‘external’, ‘innovation’ and ‘organisational’. A number of ICT adoption characteristics were identified which were categorised against the three factors. In addition, the study identified critical management challenges associated with ICT innovation and the adoption thereof in the modern business context.
Research limitations/implications: The proposed ICT adoption framework is based on scientific literature only and no popular writings, blogs and forums were included.
Practical implications: Strategists need to understand that developing agile strategies involves more than discipline; it embraces an in-depth understanding of ICT adoption factors, insight into the daily operations of managers and an awareness of innovations in ICT.
Originality/value: The paper aims to enable organisations to better understand the effects of ICT innovation and the influence this has on management roles. Additionally, it presents a comprehensive ICT adoption framework that can aid strategists in understanding the factors that influence ICT adoption.
Key words: Strategy, Strategy-as-practice, ICT adoption, ICT innovation, Management

Introduction

Over the past decade information and communications technology (ICT) has gained prominence as a key contributor that is revolutionising the way in which organisations conduct business in response to their market environment. This is quite evident from the manner in which ICT is shaping business outcomes through social media, big data, mobile technology and cloud computing. The speed of technology advancement and innovations are the main contributors of environmental change and the cause of its instability. If technology innovations are seen as the fuel for change, then the adoption thereof may be viewed as the vehicle used by management to participate in this world of constant change, and its diffusion accepted as the drivers for success within organisations. ICT plays an enormous role in business today and there is little disagreement about its strategic business importance (Bakos & Treacy, 1986:107; Adner, 2004:25). Many authors have focused on the strategic importance of ICT and the need to align both business and ICT strategies for optimal benefit realisation. Although ICT and business strategy alignment is strategically important, of equal importance are the strategic decisions pertaining to the adoption of ICT.
Strategy is a plan that organisations intend to follow in order to achieve certain desired objectives that provide an advantage over their rivals. More importantly, it refers to the organisation’s intentions and the activities it pursues for sustained existence to embrace its market environment. Strategic management deals with how organisations achieve pursued advantage through these strategies (Bitar & Hafsi, 2007:403). Since the early eighties, technology has been gaining momentum as a strategic variable and has since become a significant contributor towards the field of strategic management, providing a dominant role in the creation of corporate strategies (Friar & Horwitch, 1985:147).
Over the past decade, market environments have been disrupted mostly by ICT innovations and organisations need to evolve to adapt to these changes by creating organic structures that align with their environment (Damanpour & Gopalakrishnan, 1998; Andersen, 2001:105). In order to develop robust strategies and ultimately sustain their survival, organisations are under extreme pressure to change or adapt quickly to their environments (Ghobakhloo et al., 2012:37). The question weighing heavily on executives’ minds is whether to change or alter strategies. According to Dutta and Bilbao-Osorio (2012), the global economy is not only experiencing turbulence but has also become increasingly hyperconnected. Complicating matters even further is that traditional models used by organisations to develop strategies that support business operations have become inadequate to respond timeously to market stimuli. Thus, the strategy approach required for ICT adoption is one that can potentially address instability experienced in the contemporary environment, while being agile and flexible to respond to the business needs.
The speed of change brought on by ICT innovation means faster response is required to meet market changes. In order for organisations to address this response, managers who serve as thought leaders need to find new ways of meeting this challenge. Finding answers to this challenge may help organisations better prepare to handle the dynamics in their market environment and in doing so develop advantageous strategies. Given that contemporary organisations are in uncharted waters, a paradigm shift is required where strategy-making is concerned. A new school of thought provides this paradigm shift by focusing on strategy as an ‘activity’ rather than a ‘process’ (Whittington et al., 2006:618; Jarratt & Stiles, 2010:28). The critical thinking this paradigm brings to strategy-making is that unlike the traditional approach that focuses on the macro-aspects of strategy, this approach deals with the social practices of strategy (Vaara & Whittington, 2012:2). Given the importance of ICT adoption as a means to align business strategies with its environment, the focus of this paper is to analyse critically the aspects of ICT adoption. The outcome of which is to present a comprehensive framework of ICT adoption factors. Drawing from the micro-lens of strategy-as-practice the paper examines these factors to gain insight into the activities of strategising for ICT adoption.
The paper proceeds as follows, the next section presents the research question that is addressed in this paper. This is followed by a literature review of ICT adoption and associated challenges experienced in the modern business context, making use of the practice lens to expand on key issues. This is followed by the findings of ICT adoption factors, which are presented in the form of an adoption framework. The paper concludes with a discussion on the findings and recommends future research opportunities.

Research question

The principal aim of this paper is to focus on the challenges that ICT adoption presents to organisations in the modern business context, analyse current literature to identify ICT adoption factors and to develop an ICT adoption framework. The outcome of which is to improve the general understanding of how strategising for ICT adoption transpires in the modern economy. In an endeavour to increase this understanding, the paper focuses on the following research question:
What are the ICT adoption factors that shape decisions in the contemporary business environment?
In order to answer this question successfully, this paper investigates the following propositions:

• P1 ICT adoption is not a choice for management.
• P2 The relationship between ICT adoption and strategising is clear.
• P3 Organisational culture directly influences ICT adoption.
• P4 The factors influencing decision-making for ICT adoption are clear.
• P5 Management roles are evolving in response to their environment.

Literature study

Activity theory lens:
Strategy-as-practice (s-as-p) provides a unique manner in understanding strategic management, managerial activities and decision-making. It focuses on the micro-level social activities, processes and practices that characterise organisational strategy and strategising (Golsorkhi et al., 2010:1). S-as-p, according to Jarzabkowski et al. (2007:8), refers to strategising as the ‘doing of strategy’ and focuses explicitly on human activities. Traditionally, strategy was something that organisations had. However, strategy viewed from a practice perspective is viewed as something that people do (Jarzabkowski, 2004:529; Chia & MacKay, 2007:223). Drawing from the s-as-p perspective, ICT adoption activities can provide insight into adoption practices, more importantly it can provide the basis for future reference in determining how ICT adoption factors influence ICT adoption decisions and how these decisions ultimately shape strategy.
The s-as-p field focuses on three building blocks that make up strategising. These are the practitioners, practices and praxis. According to Whittington (2002:c1), practitioners are the ‘workers’ (in the context of this study – the managers and implementers of technology adoption), practices are the ‘tools’ (in the context of this study – the adoption practices) and praxis is the ‘work’ of strategy (in the context of this study – the work of ICT adoption). Practices are seen as the ‘infrastructure through which micro-strategy and strategising occurs’ (Jarzabkowski, 2003:24). Strategy practitioners are ‘actors’, those individuals who do the work of strategy; strategy practices are the ‘material tools’ through which the work gets done; and strategy praxis are the ‘actions’ that meet the objective of the strategy (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009:70). S-as-p is concerned with the daily practices of individuals and identifies how these actions influence strategy (Jarzabkowski & Wilson, 2002:358). It is this view that provides valuable insight into the decisions of ICT adoption, which eventually contributes towards the organisation’s strategic objective.
Management in the contemporary environment
Managers are those individuals who undertake to do the work of strategy and are seen as ‘craftspeople’ in the process of strategy-making (Whittington et al., 2006:616). Practitioner activities should not be taken lightly because it is the activities of these individuals that contribute towards the formulation of organisation strategies that determines organisation’s survival. Practitioners of strategy should not be viewed only as senior executives for whom strategy is the core focus of their work but rather to include a wider selection of actors. Although individuals at lower levels within the organisation may not have as an important title, none-the-less they are key in filtering information that contributes towards strategising activities. Managers’ decisions and activities contribute greatly towards achieving the alignment between an organisation’s strategies and the environment within which it operates (Goll et al., 2007:162). The traditional model of strategy formulation is entrenched by a hierarchical structure that is supported by predictable and stable environments, whereas contemporary environments are dynamic with organisational structures that are supportive of middle and lower level involvement (Mantere & Vaara, 2008:342).

1 INTRODUCTION 
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.4 PURPOSE STATEMENT
1.5 FOUR PAPER APPROACH
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR THIS OVERALL STUDY
1.7 ACADEMIC VALUE AND CONTRIBUTION OF THIS STUDY
1.8 LIMITATIONS
1.9 ASSUMPTIONS
1.10 DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS OF KEY TERMS
1.11 CHAPTER OUTLINE
1.12 REFERENCING TECHNIQUE
1.13 SUMMARY
2 STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT.
2.3 MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENT
2.4 SUMMARY
3 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT)
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) AND INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT)
3.3 ICT STRATEGY AND ITS IMPORTANCE
3.4 TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION
3.5 FRAMEWORK FOR TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION DRIVERS AND BARRIERS
3.6 DRIVERS FOR TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION
3.7 BARRIERS TO TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION.
3.8 TECHNOLOGY INFLUENCE ON MANAGEMENT
3.9 FUTURE ICT TRENDS THAT IMPACT MANAGEMENT DECISIONS
3.10 SUMMARY
4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS 
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 RESEARCH PARADIGM/PHILOSOPHY.
4.3 REASON FOR SELECTING THE ADOPTED PARADIGM
4.4 DESCRIPTION OF INQUIRY STRATEGY AND BROAD RESEARCH DESIGN
4.5 RESEARCH PROCESS
4.6 SAMPLING
4.7 DATA COLLECTION
4.8 RESPONSE RATE
4.9 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES
4.10 ASSESSING AND DEMONSTRATING THE QUALITY AND RIGOUR OF THE RESEARCH DESIGN
4.11 RESEARCH ETHICS.
4.12 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
4.13 SUMMARY.
5 PAPER 1: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ICT ADOPTION: THE STRATEGY-ASPRACTICE PERSPECTIVE
6 PAPER 2: ICT ADOPTION DRIVERS AND INHIBITORS: THE PRACTICE TURN
7 PAPER 3: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DECISION-MAKING AND ICT ADOPTION: THE PRACTICE TURN
8 PAPER 4: PRIORITISING ICT ADOPTION AND MANAGERIAL VIEWS: THE PRACTICE TURN.
9 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
9.1 INTRODUCTION..
9.2 A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ICT ADOPTION: THE STRATEGY-AS-PRACTICE PERSPECTIVE
9.3 ICT ADOPTION DRIVERS AND INHIBITORS: THE PRACTICE TURN
9.4 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DECISION-MAKING AND ICT ADOPTION: THE PRACTICE TURN
9.5 PRIORITISING ICT ADOPTION AND MANAGERIAL VIEWS: THE PRACTICE TURN
9.6 SUMMARY OF OVERALL FINDINGS AND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS.
9.7 SUMMARY OF OVERALL LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
9.8 SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS
10 REFERENCES 
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