Using Information Systems to Sense Opportunities for Innovation: Integrating Postadoptive Use Behaviors with the Dynamic Managerial Capability Perspective

Abstract

Fast-paced environmental changes require that managers quickly sense opportunities for organizational innovation. Information systems (IS) that support business intelligence and analytics help managers access and analyze data from various sources, thereby providing insight into potential opportunities. Building on the dynamic managerial capability perspective, we investigate the extent to which two managerial IS use behaviors—routine use and innovative use—influence a manager’s volume and diversity of ideas for organizational innovation. We also examine the moderating role of three organization-level entrepreneurial orientation characteristics—autonomy, innovativeness, and risk taking. We test our research model with survey data collected from 248 managers. Our results show that routine IS use is not related to volume or diversity of ideas for organizational innovation. However, innovative IS use is positively related to idea volume and idea diversity. Furthermore, organizational autonomy and innovativeness positively moderate the aforementioned innovative use/idea relationships. Our study contributes to the literature by linking postadoptive IS use behaviors to managerial sensing ability, an important dynamic managerial capability. We also further the understanding of how organizational factors such as entrepreneurial orientation play a key role in determining whether, when, and how managers use IS to develop ideas for organizational innovation.

Key words and phrases:

• business analytics
• decision support systems
• dynamic managerial capability
• idea set
• innovative use of IS
• IS use
• IT business value
• sensing ability

Acknowledgments

The authors extend many thanks to Mike Dinger, Varun Grover, and seminar participants at Colorado State University and the University of Maastricht for providing feedback on earlier drafts of the manuscript. They are also grateful to the editor and three anonymous reviewers for encouragement and insight throughout the review process. Finally, the authors are thankful for financial support from Colorado State University and Millsaps College.

Supplemental File

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2016.1172452

Notes

1. New entry is the act of launching a new venture, either by a startup firm, through an existing firm, or via internal corporate venturing [14].

2. We thank a reviewer for helping us clarify this point.

3. Continental Airlines merged with United Airlines in 2010.

4. Qualtrics is an online survey platform. See www.qualtrics.com for more information.

5. We thank a reviewer for helping us expand this implication.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicholas Roberts

Nicholas Roberts ([email protected]; corresponding author) is an assistant professor of computer information systems in the College of Business at Colorado State University. He received his Ph.D. from Clemson University. His research interests include the determination of the business value of information technologies and organizational learning.

Damon E. Campbell

Damon E. Campbell ([email protected]) is an associate professor of management information systems and Kelley Gene Cook, Sr. Chair of Business Administration at the Else School of Management at Millsaps College. He holds a Ph.D. from Washington State University. His research interests include e-commerce, human–computer interaction, and interface design. He has published in Information Systems Research, Decision Sciences, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, and other journals and conference proceedings.

Leo R. Vijayasarathy

Leo R. Vijayasarathy ([email protected]) is an associate professor of computer information systems in the College of Business at Colorado State University. He earned his Ph.D. from Florida International University. His research on the development, use, and consequences of information systems has been published in Electronic Markets, European Journal of Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications, Information and Management, and Journal of Management Information Systems. He serves on the editorial advisory board of Internet Research.