Wicked yet Empowering: When IT Innovations are also Disruptive Innovations

What happens when an IT innovation is also a disruptive innovation? This study explores this question by examining sample cases of advances in IT that have also been categorized as disruptive innovations. The study leads to a conceptual thesis that such occurrences result in a contrasting duality dimension of wicked challenges and empowerment opportunities for different actors. We advance a model for positioning an IT innovation with disruptive tendencies in an impact quadrant to access its relative position to different actors. We observe that in an era characterized by continuous rapid advancement in IT, the tendency for the emergence of disruptive IT innovations increases. We therefore conclude by highlighting trends in this direction and advance future research agenda that should open up an opportunity for IS research that could be both theoretically insightful as well as practically relevant.