Controlling Rapid Innovation: A Case Study of an E-business Project

Abstract

As the global economy boomed in the late 1990s, corporations spent heavily on technology innovation and pursued radical new electronic business opportunities. Years later, it is well documented that these expectations did not eventuate, with a consensus view that insufficient value propositions, content and capabilities were often offered. Yet, several questions from this period that are still relevant to contemporary organisations remain unexplored. One such issue forms the primary focus of this paper; the relationship between control and rapid innovation. A case of an e-business innovation at a wholesale financial services organisation is presented. The empirical analysis reveals the manner in which control over innovation is enacted by different 'control specialists', how these different control logics competed and how certain formal controls were curtailed through the mobilisation of wider business imperatives. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by providing insights and understandings into the complex control-innovation dynamic. Specifically, firms facing time-compressed environments characterised by reduced product life-cycles and the imperative to innovate quickly may need to embrace forms of control other than those embedded in formal management routines and procedures.