Sociometric location and innovation: how the social network intervenes between the structural position of early adopters and changes in the power map

Abstract

The introduction and development of innovation in small and medium-sized firms has most often been considered as being driven by the entrepreneur-owner who is supposed to conceive the innovation and then consistently sponsor and pursue its implementation within the organization. However, when the innovation turns from an abstract idea into a change embedded within a social network, fear of modifying the power map within the network can lead to inconsistent behaviors on the part of the owner, who may even try to make the innovation process fail. An ethnographic study was carried out in a small Italian firm that manufactures staircases, observing from start to finish the process by which a new Information System was implemented. From the field notes, clear pro- and anti-innovation coalitions emerged. The findings of the study noted that the entrepreneur-owner, although unanimously acknowledged to have argued in favor of the innovation, withdrew his support from its implementation when he realized that, contrary to his expectations, it increased the power of a few core actors defined, in this instance, as those actors with greater and more sought-after technical know-how and skills.