NuDIMS. Dick Boland "Wakes of Innovation in Project Networks: The case of digital 3-D representations in architecture, engineering and construction"

Prof. Richard J. Boland, Jr. from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University will present "Wakes of Innovation in Project Networks: The case of digital 3-D representations in architecture, engineering and construction" (Richard J. Boland et al., forthcoming Org Sci). 

ABSTRACT:

We explain wakes of innovation in distributed systems using concepts of path creation, trading zones and intercalation. Our study deals with the adoption of three-dimensional (3-D) digital representations by the architect Frank O. Gehry in his building projects. In contrast to earlier studies on innovation that considered the wake of a single innovation in a homogeneous environment, we saw multiple, heterogeneous firms in his building projects producing diverse innovations, each creating a different wake of innovation. Together, these multiple wakes of innovation produce a complex landscape of innovation with unpredictable peaks and valleys. We observed that the adoption of 3-D representations shaped innovations in construction project networks in three ways: 1) it provided path creating innovation trajectories in separate communities of practice including Frank Gehry’s own, 2) it created trading zones in which communities could share knowledge about multiple and diverse innovations in their technologies and practices, and 3) it offered a means of interrelating multiple innovations across heterogeneous communities. Our analysis highlights how digital 3-D representations disturbed the traditional patterns of interaction among architecture, engineering and construction firms in Frank Gehry’s projects. Our study suggests that complex IT innovations need to be analyzed as multiple wakes of innovation in technologies, work practices and knowledge across multiple communities, each of which follows a distinctive tempo and trajectory.