The processes of ICT diffusion in technology projects
Jana Jagodic
Business Administration, School of Business, University of Ballarat, Ballarat VIC
Jerry Courvisanos
Innovation and Entrepreneurship, School of Business
University of Ballarat, Ballarat VIC
John Yearwood
School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, University of Ballarat, Ballarat VIC
PP: 291 - 303
Abstract
Delivering technology projects on time with a specified budget and resources has emerged as a strategic imperative in the highly competitive business world. One of the project challenges is increasingly tied to diffusion (spread) of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovation.
This paper presents an empirical study that examines how ICT innovation is diffused within technology projects. Based on the case study methodology within 12 organisations in Australia and Germany, it emerged that ICT innovation is diffused formally alongside standard project management phases and informally within informal networks.
The findings are synthesised in a new framework that seeks to inform theory and practice about formal and informal processes of ICT diffusion in technology projects.
Keywords
ICT, diffusion, project management, formal process, informal process, informal network
Article Text
During the last decade, cost-cutting pressures, accompanied by increasing customer demands and rapid changing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have driven companies to initiate technology projects. Productivity Commission (2004) argues that companies invest in ICT in order to boost their performance. However, the process of technological implementation involves a considerable amount of risk with respect to the diffusion of new technologies within projects. The high failure and delay rates of ICT projects have been the subject of considerable interest among academics and practitioners (Volk 2004; Charvat 2003; Krempl 2004).
Currently, there is general agreement that delivering technology projects on time with a defined budget and resources is still the principal criterion for measuring the success of technology projects (LeMay 2008). According to Andersen et al. (2006), the set project goals can be achieved through communication. However, communication is a broad term that needs further investigation. Rogers' (1995: 17) research on diffusion of innovation states that it is '... a particular type of communication in which the message content that is exchanged is concerned with a new idea'. In regard to this, scholars are still in dispute over how new ideas are disseminated. While Volk (2004) emphasises the formal and planned diffusion processes within project management, Rogers (1995) highlights that diffusion of new ideas can occur either as a planned or spontaneous process. Usually, technological ideas are disseminated via informal networks in order to influence people (Kakabadse et al. 2004). This implies that informal networks play a vital role in the diffusion process of innovation (Von Stamm 2003).
Over the past 15 years, scholars have examined project management, diffusion and informal networks as separate discourses. This study is among the first which investigates how ICT is diffused within standard project management and whether informal networks are used for dissemination purposes. Moreover, it is not clear whether ICT diffusion includes the same diffusion elements such as innovation, communication channels, adoption or rejection time and social system, which were suggested by Rogers (1995) in the general context of diffusion of innovation. Specifically, this paper seeks to address the research question: how is ICT innovation diffused alongside standard project management in order to achieve target project outcomes? In the next section, the theoretical background for the study is discussed, followed by the methodology applied. The results are then outlined and the discussion presented with conclusions.
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