THREE THEORIES AND ONE CASE STUDY OF TOP-DOWN, MD3DLE-OUT AND BOTTOM-UP PROCESS INNOVATION

摘要

A case study of an outsourcer adoption of 16 processes relating to servitizing their IT Operations was evaluated from three theoretical lenses: Governance, Innovation and Institutions. Governance Theory implies a top-down approach would be most appropriate to IT process change; Innovation Theory implies that a combined bottom-up and top-down approach would be best; Institutional Theory implies that all three take place over time in most organizations but does not specifically make any recommendations. The case organization, an IT Outsourcer, without knowingly drawing on any theory, applied change efforts at all three levels to effect change for 16 processes across 14 organizations in eight countries to achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification, all within two years. Institutional Theory which posits regulative, normative and cognitive methods for developing compliance to an organizational change appears to fit the situation of complex, multi-national, multi-cultural change in an IT organization better than the competing theories.