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

当今管理面临的一个中心问题是如何在一个全球性的企业中最好地传播新的思想、过程和技术，因为它的通信网络是动态的、紧急的和难以捉摸的。高管们认识到这些需求。组织竞争力的一个关键因素已经成为创新实施的速度。正如高德纳集团（Gartner Group）所观察到的那样，虽然培养好想法和产生创新是商业成功的核心，但在当今的组织中，执行速度已经成为提供竞争优势的差异化因素，而且远不能保证。创新在实际使用时才会获得最大的价值。特别是信息系统的研究人员，已经开始认识到在信息技术基础设施和业务系统之间更好地协调的重要性。IT专业人士也认识到创新理论在研究实施问题上的应用。然而，尽管IT的普遍性和复杂性，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扩散网络的实现。本研究的主要目的是通过收集流经公司信息技术基础设施的数据来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，从而在it驱动的全球组织中发展和测试扩散理论。有关创新的数据将通过自动化的电子手段收集，例如，通过访问网站的人的日志文件以及他们在什么时间点击了什么链接。创新本身涉及可追踪的电子踪迹。例如，一个创新可能是一个新的软件工具，允许在工具中放置一个“标签”，用于电子跟踪，以确定工具何时被谁采用。这项研究将由商业人类学、传播学、成人教育和工程学的跨学科学者组成，并与福特汽车公司、通用汽车公司和戴姆勒克莱斯勒公司这三家汽车行业主要全球公司的信息技术专业人士合作进行，这三家公司是本研究的研究地点。汽车工业行动小组将帮助广泛传播这项研究的结果和成果。IBM公司作为研究的合作伙伴，将提供IT和研究专业知识。知识价值：本研究将通过以下方式加速全球网络化组织创新扩散研究的理论进展：1)建立一个涵盖三个组织的一系列创新（30 - 60）的数字扩散数据库；2)用统计估计技术对每个扩散曲线进行建模，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、关于创新的传播以及传播网络变量与扩散曲线类型相关联；4)在基于it的环境中发展关于扩散的概括，这可以刺激理论并导致未来的假设测试。这项研究是一项综合性的努力，它推进了扩散模式和社会网络随时间共同进化的动态多层次建模。这项研究为我们理解技术与人类和社会动态变化之间的关系开辟了新的领域。更广泛的影响：该研究将推进组织变革的实践，并通过调查、记录和验证使用现有信息技术网络基础设施的新方法，以及通过开发实时动态规划、监控和管理创新和组织变革的扩散的技术，帮助加速创新的扩散。简单、清晰和可重复使用的“数字扩散仪表板”指标将为学者和从业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，直观地监控扩散网络的出现，以及在扩散过程中监控实施工作的后果。虽然“仪表盘”工具将在汽车行业的背景下开发，但它将在许多其他公共和私营部门（如医疗保健、零售、政府和技术）具有广泛的适用性和效益。

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.