Understanding IT Innovations through Discourse Analysis

The dynamic information field is characterized by the constant ebbs and flows of innovations in information technologies (IT). Accordingly, managing information and formulating policies in the iField require understanding IT innovations – what they are and will be, who develops and/or adopts them, and how innovations may be effectively developed, implemented, and used. Despite a relatively sustained research literature on IT innovations [2], our knowledge of innovations is still inadequate to effectively inform strategic information management and policy-making in the iField. For instance, the field is filled with numerous buzzwords and acronyms, making it hard to differentiate true progress from mere change. And most research and practice are focused on highly popular innovations such as Web 2.0 and cloud computing; little is known about why only some innovations come to be popular while others do not. The lack of understanding is in part caused by limited research designs that focus on only one or a few innovations, owing to the difficulty in analyzing large-scale data on multiple innovations.