Andersen, Jonas (2016) The dynamics of distributed digital innovation : an analysis of the radical transformation of frontline customer service in a UK retail bank. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis shows how small-scale actions can accumulate into radical organisational transformations catalysed and enhanced through digital technology. Current literature on digital innovation and path creation offer powerful views on such transformations emphasising the vistas of opportunity opened by generative and flexible digital technology, and how new technology can be leveraged for organisational transformation.

Digital transformations have predominantly been portrayed from the centralised perspective of a manager, entrepreneur or group of designers. However, emerging research on distributed digital innovation increasingly emphasises how radical transformations emerge from widely distributed networks as a result of contributions from multiple heterogeneous actors. The aim of this thesis is to inform emerging theory on distributed digital innovation by explaining the ways in which multiple digitally distributed actions can combine into radical organisational transformations.

To this end, a two-year, multi-method case study of the distributed and radical digital transformation of frontline customer service at Barclays’ retail bank was conducted. The research design combines traditional qualitative research techniques with new computational methods in a ‘grounded computational analysis’ framework. This allows for a new empirical and conceptual perspective on the agency dynamics of distributed digital innovation.

The findings suggest that organisational transformations can occur as a consequence of accumulation of multiple small-scale actions, contingent upon at least the following four factors: a) the sequence of previous transformations; b) the composition and structure of the innovation network; c) the co-occurrence of proposition, opposition and synthesis as micro-level interactions; d) the specific configurations of enacted agency dynamics.

These findings are used to build a grounded process theory of ‘double-cumulative synthesis’ explaining the transformational power of specific configurations of digital agency dynamics. This contributes to the literature on distributed digital innovation by conceptualising the dynamics and structure of distributed agency dynamics that accumulate into radical organisational transformations.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Business enterprises -- Technological innovations, Organizational change -- Technological innovations, Customer services -- Technological innovations, Customer relations -- Technological innovations, Banks and banking -- Customer services
Official Date:	September 2016
Dates:	Date Event September 2016 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Warwick Business School
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Baptista, João ; Henfridsson, Ola
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	275 leaves : illustrations, charts
Language:	eng

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