Managing IT Innovation in the Public Sector: An Empirical Network Analysis of Actors Related to the Design of the New Public Property Determination Model

Abstract

This thesis applies a case study approach to the investigation of IT innovation within the public sector in Denmark. It applies an interpretive research approach utilising interviews and other relevant data material to analyse how actors affect the process of designing a new Public Property Determination Model. Through a comprehensive literature review we examine the nature of innovation and present a conceptual framework of different orientations within the field. By applying an actor-network analysis we are able to demonstrate how relevant actors and their inherited roles drive progress. Lastly, we discuss how social factors play a role in the design and construction of technology. Our finding suggests three ways that actors shape the public innovation process. First, by changing the inherited political, technical or social properties of the embedded system actors overcome obstacles and constraints improving the process. Second, by imprinting interpretations of problems and solutions that affect the trajectories of the project actors agree on a solution that can bring an artefact to stable and closed state. Last by translating social values and meaning actors are able to inscribe technology and delegate tasks. To summarise, we present a framework for explaining the integrative dependence between actors, power and the artefact in the process of innovation over time