Faculty of Arts and Sciences thesis No. 123
Siri W
assrin
Why is it difficult t
o design innovative IT?
2018
Why is it difficult to
design innovative IT?
An agential realist study of designing
IT for healthcare innovation
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Faculty of Arts and Sciences thesis No. 123, 2018Department of Management and Engineering Linköping University
SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
www.liu.se
Siri W
assrin
Why is it difficult t
o design innovative IT?
2018
It may seem strange to claim that it is difficult to design innovative information technology (IT) in a time when the technological progress leaps forward like never before. However, despite the numerous opportunities that this rapid progress provides, we often design IT that is similar to ex-isting artifacts, making IT design incremental rather than radical. At the same time, IT innovations are pointed out as crucial to meet the societal challenges we are facing, not least in the public sector, including a growing and older population, increasing demands from citizens and reduced tax revenues. This calls for us to better understand why it is difficult to design innovative IT. Previous research on this topic have mainly focused on human and social aspects, not paying close attention to IT. In this thesis, it is suggested that the sociomaterial theory agential realism can help shed light on the role of IT in innovative IT design, acknowledging the sociomateriality of IT. Thus, the overarching aim of this thesis is to apply agential realism on an empirical case in order to explore and explain why it is difficult to design innovative IT.
