社区学习信息技术创新外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 外文 Community learning in information technology innovation Material Source:MIS34,4,2009 Author:Wang Ping and NeilC Ramiller Learning Perspective Over the past two decades, IT innovation research has increasingly examined learning as an integral aspect of organizations’ efforts to innovate with IT (see the review by Robey et al. 2000). In this section, we revisit the theoretical basis for the learning perspective in IT innovation research and highlight the main emphases in that perspective. We discuss how those emphases may be broadened and complemented by recent innovation theories. This will set the stage for us to introduce the concepts of learning-about and community learning. Learning to Innovate with IT An IT innovation is an information technology perceived as new by the adopting organization (Rogers 2003; Swanson 1994). Our perspective on innovation hence is oriented toward adopters.2 Organizations innovate with IT by applying new IT to their business processes. Innovating with IT, according to Swanson and Ramiller (2004), is a journey that involves four core processes: comprehension, adoption, implementation, and assimilation. First, organizations collect and interpret information from their environments about the existence and basic idea of an IT innovation. Second, this comprehension effort informs organizations’ decisions on whether to adopt the innovation, plus the articulation of supporting rationales. Third, where adoption is actually pursued, the innovation is deployed—hardware and software are installed, business processes are changed, users are trained, and so on. Finally, in due course the innovation becomes assimilated into the routines of organizational work systems. Adopters of IT innovations often face significant challenges in acquiring the knowledge needed to understand and utilize the innovations effectively (Attewell 1992; Fichman and Kemerer 1997), not least of which because learning is needed across all four processes in the inno