Paper short abstract:

This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of contextually-shaped, highly contingent processes of technological innovation. Applying a biographical perspective a longitudinal case study was conducted of the development and diffusion of an information system in a German car company.

Paper long abstract:

This case study provided an opportunity to refine and critically examine the applicability of an ecology metaphor to analyse systematically shifts in the composition of alliances between players over an extended timescale in the lifecycle of a technology. The study seeks to advance theorisation of technology as a configurational product of an evolutionary process in which contextual contingencies are built in at different episodes of implementation (Fleck, 1988). It extends and tests the applicability of the 'Biography of Artefacts and Practices' perspective (Pollock and Williams 2009; Hyysalo, 2010) to a different form of innovation (a project within a firm) to understand the detailed dynamics and the influence of configurational politics (Sahay et al., 2009). The framework developed underscores theories of technology that originate from the mid-range (Hine, 2007) and questions the applicability of theories that emphasise agency over structure. It develops a conceptual framework, tentatively titled Ecological Shaping of Technology, drawing upon the Social Shaping of Technology and Social Learning perspectives, that encompasses both detailed understanding of micro-level developments and longer-term dynamics in an extended biographical study. It thus provides a further starting point for advancing an ecological understanding of technological change.