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Literature on innovation suggests that innovative business units seem to be information intensive and ambidextrous in nature. Some business units carry out exploratory and exploitative processes under different roof (UDR) and others under same roof (USR). To establish the balance between exploration and exploitation in innovators, information system (IS) plays an important role to share the information accurately, timely, effectively and efficiently. The present study explores three aspects of information sharing: 1) differences in focus (clear vs. unclear orientation) of IS in UDR and USR type of innovative business units; 2) difference in characteristics of IS facilitating exploratory activities v/s exploitative activities considering: a) type of information being used; b) its flexibility; c) business processes characteristics as mapped on IS. The study framework is set in the form of nine hypotheses and verified through primary data obtained from 31 Innovators (15 UDR and 16 USR types) through a structured questionnaire. The majority of the hypotheses are supported. The study contributes to the IS literature in that it underlines the flexibility dimensions of IS to cope-up with the rigor of innovation activities and fragile innovation process.

This paper focuses on continuous innovation in healthcare examining the implementation of lean thinking in the English National Health Service (NHS). Using interviews and non-participant observations, this study focuses on the dynamics of actor associations as they are manifested in the efficiency innovations in specimen turnaround times in a pathology unit of an NHS hospital, under actor-network theory principles. We illustrate the emergence of continuous innovation as an actor-network, which is responsible for creating the necessary conditions and behavioural changes for continuous innovation. Furthermore, we explicate the mechanism of translation to represent the ‘glue’ that keeps the corresponding actors together, contributing to the success of lean in the hospital and subsequently continuous innovation.

This paper is concerned with the implementation of business intelligence (BI) presenting a case study from the Hellenic banking sector. Based on the paucity of BI literature on the role of stakeholders in the implementation and by adopting an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective, it focuses and discusses the emergence of actors and their associations during this process. The contribution of this study lies in providing an insight of the manner system stakeholders come in the fore during the different phases in complex system implementation contexts and influence along the way the process from design to the final roll-out.

This paper addresses the dynamics and mechanisms underpinning the trajectories and outcomes of process innovation. It deploys actor-network theory to explore the role of emergent stakeholder dynamics and networks in shaping the trajectory and outcomes of a project to implement Lean thinking (Lean) in a theatres unit of a UK National Health Service hospital. It traces the process of network formation, stabilisation and maintenance over time, and shows that different meanings for Lean become manifest during the implementation process, manifested through the emergence and mobilisation of a global and a local network that interact with each other using the project as a negotiation space in order to achieve their diverse interests.