Arturo Vega

Extending the research agenda on diffusion: the case of public program interventions for the adoption of e-business systems in SMEs

Given the importance of contextual influences on the diffusion of innovations, the theories and methodologies that take context into account are increasingly relevant to research and practice. One such approach, the systems of innovation approach, considers context to be a cascading set of effects arising from various participants and innovations surrounding the production and diffusion of a focal innovation. Based on this approach, we focus on a public program involved in the diffusion of e-business systems to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). E-business systems are complex innovations, and the contextual influences are particularly important here, because SMEs often lack the knowledge and resources to strategically adopt, modify, and use these innovations. Using the systems of innovation approach, we examined the contexts around public program interventions with an SME in order to explain their form and influence on e-business adoption processes. The empirical findings suggest that many public programs fail to effectively deliver interventions because program contexts restrict program personnels ability to completely assess and respond to the range of adopter needs. While some aspects of the program contexts can be altered by the program directors, others are further removed and are currently beyond our collective control at this point-in-time. The implications for diffusion research and practice are discussed.

Open innovation and SMEs: Exploring policy and the scope for improvements in university-based public programmes through a multidisciplinary lens

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the use of a multidisciplinary lens, the policy context and the scope for improvements in university‐based public programmes focused on improving innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – The authors use the street‐level bureaucracy (SLB), combined with the systems of innovation approach (SIA) and diagnostic analysis (DA) to understand the context components that impact on public programme services. The study is part of a research programme oriented to the diffusion of information systems in SMEs and which used original interview‐based programme support case studies, interviews with regional policy managers, and documentation relating to the policy system and different public programmes. Although the empirical work was UK and European Union centric the results of the research have wide applicability.Findings – The paper establishes the importance of programme contexts for diagnosing and providing a basis for p...

Understanding the Causes of Informal and Formal Discretion in the Delivery of Enterprise Policies: A Multiple Case Study

This research investigates a relevant gap in the academic literature on enterprise policy—namely, the nature of discretion and the causes that permit it during policy implementation. We found in our case studies that the programme workers who deliver policies exerted considerable discretion. Further evidence suggests that the main influences on what we call informal discretion—discretion clearly outside programme objectives—include the design of programme evaluation and audit as well as the influence of evaluators and auditors in these processes. We also found evidence of formal discretion—discretion allowed within programme objectives—through broad and ambiguous policies and procedures. Our findings and theoretical framework illustrate how discretion cannot be so easily curtailed by the market logics and strict rules of the new public management practice. Instead, we conclude that the possibility of refraining policy statements and evaluation as a learning process, from programme successes and failures, would transform our approach to policy implementation. This would require a number of institutional and incentive changes for policy actors and the public.

Extending the research agenda on diffusion of innovations: the role of public programs in the diffusion of e-business innovations

Given the important but largely unstudied role of contextual influences on the diffusion of innovations, theories and methodologies which take context into account are increasingly relevant. One such approach, the system of innovation approach (SIA), considers context as a network of organizations and groups involved in the production and diffusion of innovations. In addition to the focal innovation, these organizations and groups are influenced by other contexts, and so the further study of their diffusion settings extends the diffusion research agenda. To this end, we focus on a subset of the public programs involved in the diffusion of e-business innovations to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). E-business applications are complex innovations, and the need for outside assistance is especially significant for SMEs because they often lack the knowledge and resources to strategically adopt, modify, and use e-business applications. To understand how these programs influence e-business adoption, we used theories that examine the contexts around public program interventions in order to explain its form and outcome. The empirical findings suggest that many public programs fail to effectively deliver interventions because program personnel work in contexts that restrict their focus and ability to completely assess SME business needs.

Systems of Innovation, Multidisciplinarity, and Methodological Pluralism: A Realist Approach to Guide the Future of Information Systems Research and Practice

Information systems (IS) are complex phenomena. For instance, the diffusion of IS in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) depends on various levels of networked, localized, and changing determinants, such as the ones related to the adopter organizations, decision makers, technologies, complementary innovations, business partners, professional groups, universities, and government policies. This complex view of IS implies the use of different disciplines and methodologies to study the diffusion process. The objective of this empirical research is to demon strate how the systems of innovation approach (SIA), for addressing the institutional and evolutionary determinants of diffusion, and the philosophical stance of critical realism (CR), for guiding the research process, are compatible and meet the multidisciplinarity and methodological pluralism required to move on the field of complex IS and recommend meaningful actions to practice. To exemplify our arguments, we focus the study on one relevant determinant that affects the diffusion of IS in SMEs, namely government programs.

Towards a comprehensive framework for the evaluation of small and medium enterprise policy

This research demonstrates the relevance of the evaluative cycle and its diverse methodological designs in small and medium enterprise (SME) policy. We structure our arguments based on the most common phases of the cycle, namely policy justification, needs, policy theory, implementation, impact and efficiency assessments. We use an in-depth case study of public assistance to an SME to illustrate how findings from these phases go beyond the results of the additionality practice in SME policy. We employ the findings as starting points to discuss several methodological designs for the evaluation of entire programmes, policies and systems.