DHB: Accelerating the Diffusion of Innovations: A Digital Diffusion Dashboard Methodology for Global Networked Organizations

项目摘要当今管理层面临的一个中心问题是，鉴于其通信网络的动态、紧急和难以捉摸的特点，如何最好地在全球企业中传播新的想法、流程和技术。高管们认识到了这些需求。组织竞争力的一个关键因素已经成为实施创新的速度。虽然培养好的想法和创新是商业成功的核心，但正如Gartner Group所观察到的那样，当今组织的执行速度已经成为提供竞争优势的差异化因素，而且还远未确定。创新在实际应用时会获得最大的价值。尤其是信息系统领域的研究人员已经开始认识到信息技术基础设施与业务系统之间更好地协调一致的重要性。IT专业人士也认识到创新理论的扩散对研究实施问题的作用。然而，尽管信息技术的普及和成熟，各组织并没有利用信息系统本身固有的能力作为一种方法来管理在扩散网络中的实施。这项研究的主要目标是通过收集流经公司信息技术基础设施的数据来开发和测试IT驱动的全球组织中的扩散理论，以研究不同类型的创新，并在“数字扩散仪表板”中动态显示扩散模式和网络。关于这些创新的数据将通过自动化的电子手段收集，例如，通过记录谁访问网站以及他们在什么时间点击了哪些链接的日志文件。这些创新本身涉及可追踪的电子踪迹。例如，一项创新可以是一种新的软件工具，该工具允许在用于电子跟踪的工具内放置“标签”以确定该工具何时被采用以及被谁采用。这项研究将由一个由商业人类学、传播学、成人教育和工程学学者组成的跨学科团队与来自汽车行业三大全球公司的信息技术专业人员合作进行，这三家公司是福特汽车公司、通用汽车公司和戴姆勒-克莱斯勒公司，它们是这项研究的研究地点。汽车行业行动小组将帮助广泛传播这项研究的结果和成果。作为这项研究的合作伙伴，IBM公司将提供IT和研究专业知识。智力优势：拟议的研究将通过以下方式加快全球网络组织创新扩散研究的理论进展：1)开发一个涵盖三个组织的创新范围(30-60)的数字扩散数据库，2)使用统计估计技术对每条扩散曲线进行建模，并对这些曲线进行聚类，以确定创新扩散模式的类型，3)将创新的特征、与创新的沟通和传播网络变量与扩散曲线类型相关联，以及4)开发关于IT环境中的扩散的概括，以激励理论并导致未来的假设检验。这项研究是一项综合性的努力，旨在推进扩散模式和社会网络随着时间的推移共同演变的动态多层次建模。这项研究为我们理解技术与变革的人和社会动态之间的关系开辟了新的前沿。广泛的影响：这项研究将通过调查、记录和验证利用现有信息技术网络基础设施的新方法，并通过开发实时动态规划、监控和管理创新扩散和组织变革的技术，来推进组织变革的实践，并帮助加速创新的传播。“数字传播仪表盘”的简单、清晰和可重复使用的指标将为学者和实践者开辟一个新的前沿。研究人员和管理人员将能够利用公司的数据资源，在扩散网络出现时对其进行可视监控，并在扩散过程中监控实施工作的结果。虽然“仪表盘”工具将在汽车行业的背景下开发，但它将在医疗保健、零售、政府和技术等许多其他公共和私营部门具有广泛的适用性和好处。

Project Summary A central problem faced by today's management is how best to diffuse new ideas, processes and technologies across a global enterprise given the dynamic, emergent, and elusive character of its communication networks. Executives recognize these needs. A critical factor in organizationalcompetitiveness has become the speed at which innovations can be implemented. While fostering good ideas and producing innovation is central to business success, the speed of execution in today's organizations has become the differentiating factor that provides competitive advantage and is far from assured, as the Gartner Group has observed. Innovations gain their greatest value when they are actually used. Researchers in information systems in particular, have begun to recognize the importance of better alignment between information technology infrastructure and business systems. IT professionals are also recognizing the utility of diffusion of innovation theory to study implementation problems. However, despite the ubiquity and sophistication of IT, organizations have not taken advantage of the capabilities inherent in the information system itself as a method to manage implementation in diffusion networks. The primary objective of this study is to develop and test diffusion theories in IT-driven global organizations by collecting data which flows through a company's information technology infrastructure to study innovations of different kinds and to display diffusion patterns and networks dynamically in a "digital diffusion dashboard". Data on the innovations will be collected through automated electronic means, for example, through log files of who visits Web sites and what links they click on at what times. The innovations themselves involve a traceable electronic trail. For example, an innovation may be a new software tool allowing the placement of a "tag" within the tool for electronic tracking to determine when the tool is adopted and by whom. The research will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of scholars in business anthropology, communication, adult education and engineering in partnership with information technology professionals from three major global corporations in the automotive industry: Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, and DaimlerChrysler Corporation that serve as the research sites for this study. The Automotive Industry Action Group will help disseminate widely the findings and deliverables from this study. The IBM Corporation, as a partner in the study, will provide both IT and research expertise.Intellectual Merit: The proposed research will accelerate theoretical progress in the study of diffusion ofinnovations in global networked organizations by: 1) developing a digital diffusion database of a range ofinnovations (30 - 60) across three organizations, 2) modeling each diffusion curve with statistical estimation techniques and clustering these curves to identify types of innovation diffusion patterns, 3) correlating characteristics of the innovations, communication about them, and communication network variables with the diffusion curve types, and 4) developing generalizations about diffusion in IT-based environments that can stimulate theory and lead to future hypotheses testing. The research is an integrative effort that advances dynamic multilevel modeling of diffusion patterns and social networks as they co-evolve over time. The research opens new frontiers in our understanding of the relationship between technology and the human and social dynamics of change.Broader Impacts: The study will advance the practice of organizational change and help accelerate thediffusion of innovations by investigating, documenting and validating a new methodology using existinginformation technology network infrastructure, and by developing techniques to dynamically plan, monitor and manage the diffusion of innovations and organizational change in real time. Simple, clear and reusable indicators for a "digital diffusion dashboard" will open a new frontier for both scholars and practitioners alike. Researchers and managers will be able to leverage a company's data resources and visually monitor the diffusion network as it emerges as well as to monitor the consequences of implementation efforts during the diffusion process. While the "dashboard" tools will be developed in the context of the automobile industry, it will have wide applicability and benefit in many other public and private sectors, such as healthcare, retail, government and technology.