An Integrated Framework for Examining Innovation Alignment in Organizations

Abstract

Innovation has been promoted as a panacea to solve the long-standing problem of how organizations deal with complexities associated with uncertainty and instability in ever changing environments. information systems (IS) research focusing on innovation has adopted several perspectives to reveal a rich context in which the innovation surfaces as a phenomenon. Examination of a rich context may contribute to a better understanding of an extent to which uncertainty and instability can affect or be affected by innovation strategies that require various innovation efforts in an organization. In this regard, one of the most critical issues is to ensure that these innovation efforts can achieve a successful outcome via their strategic and structural alignment. In this research, we propose an integrated framework that addresses an innovation alignment issue by employing three high-level notions (strategic dimensions, structural characteristics, strategizing acts). The integrated framework has been used rigorously in two cases for an explorative purpose. Our interpretation of the evidence suggests that strategizing act, as a high-level notion has an explanatory power to articulate the associations between strategic dimensions and structural characteristics. Among other findings, we have observed that the closed, incremental and process-oriented innovation strategy is particularly relevant to the corporate level whereas radical, product-oriented, and partially open innovation strategy is associated with a more exclusive innovation structure.