Risk avoidance in strategic technology adoption
Journal of Modelling in Management
ISSN: 1746-5664
Article publication date: 12 March 2024
Issue publication date: 11 October 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational technologies can be classified according to the roles they play as either commodity or strategic. Commodity technologies support common operations, while strategic technologies address perceived threats to competitiveness, often identified by strategic foresight. These must go through an adoption process before playing an effective role in strategy execution. The adoption process includes known activities, ranging from sourcing (itself from in-house development to turn-key acquisition) to operational integration. This paper aims to reveal strategic technology adoption risks that arise during strategy execution.
Design/methodology/approach
A gradually developed causal loop diagram model, supported by general literature, introduces three general classes of technology adoption risks: mismatched requirements, supplier dependence and unmanaged life cycles.
Findings
Rather than managed, these risks are incurred or avoided depending on decisions made during the adoption process.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the scarce literature coverage for the approach, examples revealing the presence of adoption risks are nevertheless available in the well-documented history of enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Practical implications
Although ERP is presented as a general-purpose strategic technology, the unique business features of maritime container terminals pose serious challenges to its adoption, which provides additional support to the discussion and reinforces the conclusions.
Originality/value
The approach to identifying risks in strategic technology adoption departs from the current risk paradigm in two significant ways. First, it emphasizes policy decision-making rather than external events. Second, it views risks as systemic rather than occurring independently.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was partially funded by the Strategic Research Plan of the Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering (CENT EC), financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia – FCT).
Citation
Mendes, J.P., Marques, M. and Guedes Soares, C. (2024), "Risk avoidance in strategic technology adoption", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 1485-1509. https://doi.org/10.1108/JM2-10-2023-0221
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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