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This study aims to explore how digital intermediaries interact with individual intermediaries to assist corporate social entrepreneurs (CSEs) in building inclusive markets. In response to the challenge of social exclusion, CSEs craft strategies by leveraging their existing capabilities and resources. However, when it comes to building inclusive markets, CSEs face the liabilities of institutional voids and must rely on intermediaries to establish efficient trading channels. This study focuses on the process by which CSEs firstly construct technology affordances of digital intermediaries, and then actualise affordances through the interactions of digital and individual intermediaries in overcoming technology constraints and triggering involvement cycle in the context of rural e-commerce.

Using a single-case study design, the authors unfolded the process of a rural e-commerce project conducted by a Chinese e-commerce giant. The authors interviewed 35 informants from 2016 to 2018; each interview lasted 45–90 minutes. In addition, archival and observational data were collected for triangulation. After thorough examination, the data was coded and a grounded framework was developed.

This study provides a detailed process of how the interactions of digital and individual intermediaries facilitate CSEs in building inclusive markets through a rural e-commerce project. The authors find that CSEs generate corporate strategy in building inclusive markets by constructing three affordances of digital intermediaries: equality facilitator, harmony maintainer and stickiness creator. Subsequently, in actualising these affordances, CSEs fill institutional voids through the interactions between digital and individual intermediaries. Specifically, the technology constraints of digital intermediaries trigger a four-phase cycle involving individual intermediaries: identification, activation, coaching and empowerment. This involvement cycle effectively overcomes the technology constraints of digital intermediaries. The interactions between digital and individual intermediaries facilitate the dual goals achievement of CSEs and finally restructure the market architecture.

Firstly, this study stands among the pioneering research endeavours exploring the interactions between digital and individual intermediaries in facilitating CSEs to develop inclusive markets. Diverging from existing literature, which often enhances or refines the role of a single intermediary in filling institutional voids, the authors posit that digital and individual intermediaries dynamically complement each other in actualising affordances. This complementary dynamic stands as a substitute for the evolution of a single intermediary in building inclusive markets. Secondly, by zooming out the process of constructing and actualising affordances, this study contributes to the literature on technology affordance in both contextual and relational aspects. Contextually, the authors identify three tenets of affordances generated by the corporate strategy of CSEs. Relationally, the authors argue that affordances can be predeveloped by CSEs and then fully actualised through interactions between digital and individual intermediaries, challenging the conventional view that sees affordances as a relational concept solely determined by users and artefacts during the actualisation process. Thirdly, this study makes a contribution by untangling the process of CSEs in reshaping the market context to make it more inclusive. Departing from the conventional focus on the role of institutional intermediaries for CSEs in filling institutional voids, the authors explore how CSEs develop digital intermediaries and induce their interactions with individual intermediaries to restructure market architecture during the process of constructing and actualising affordances. In conclusion, this study adds valuable insights to the literature on institutional voids, technology affordance and CSE in building inclusive markets.

By focusing on the contextual conditions of South African digital entrepreneurs and the affordances of digital technologies, we understand how connective affordances of digital technologies enable a collective approach to digital entrepreneurship.

We do so through an interpretive field study of South African digital entrepreneurs operating in resource-constrained settings.

The findings highlight how entrepreneurs appropriate digital technologies in collectives to achieve connective actions and cooperate and compete simultaneously, giving rise to what we call coopetitive affordance, reflecting a fresh perspective on coopetition in increasingly digital and resource-constrained realities.

This paper extends the connective affordance perspective by illustrating how the concept of coopetitive affordance brings to light how contextual conditions create a humanitarian bond between entrepreneurs and a digital bond created by their appropriation of digital technologies in collectives.

The aim of this study is to explore, identify and understand the impact of technology affordance in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). Moreover, this study incorporates user experience as a moderator, in order to explore behavioral differences between veterans (high-experience users) and newbies (low-experience users).

A research model was developed to examine the influences of three technology affordances: interactivity, information and navigation on user satisfaction and SNS stickiness. Totally 266 data were collected from a famous college in China using an online survey, and structural equation modeling technique was used to examine the proposed research model.

The empirical research findings indicated that the three technology affordance attributes exhibited different degrees of influence on user satisfaction, which in turn facilitated SNS stickiness. Particularly, high-experience users were more likely influenced by interactivity and information affordances, while low-experience users are more susceptible to navigation affordance.

This study can provide guidelines to the platform administrators to design SNSs from the aspects of interactivity, information and navigation attributes and pay attention to the preference differences between high-experience users and low-experience users.

This study uncovers the significant antecedents of SNS stickiness from a technology affordance lens and reveals the moderating effect of user experience on the relationship between three technology affordance attributes and satisfaction.

This paper aims to investigate the benefits generated by the use of new technologies by nonprofit organizations, with focus on how these artefacts can improve their ability to achieve their social mission.

To understand the potential use of technology by a nonprofit organization, the concept of affordance was applied. The authors propose a processual model of affordances’ interdependences that enrich the extant literature. Six nonprofit organizations in two Brazilian regions were deeply investigated using a multiple case study method.

The authors identified new sub-categories of technology affordances, which are not just related to nonprofit but that could be also applied to other types, including for-profit. Sub-categories of affordances seem to play different roles in the actualization process. The authors are not proposing determinist connections among sub-categories, but they argue that they sustain some sub-categories precede or create the condition for others to emerge.

Nonprofit organizations lack theoretical and empirical investigations on management in general and on technology management in particular. In its turn, the technology field does not pay much attention, both in terms of research and practice, to the specificities of the third sector where the nonprofit organizations operate. This process model of potential uses of new technologies that might favor nonprofit organizations contributes to the cross-fertilization between two distinct fields: third sector and technology management.

We bring together the institutional theory literature on institutional logics and the information systems (IS) literature that conceptualizes a relational view of affordances to explore the digital changes unfolding in the delivery of professional services. Through a qualitative inductive study of the development of an app led by a clinician manager in an Australian hospital, we investigate how multiple institutional logics shape the design of affordances when an organization develops new digital technologies for frontline professional work. Our findings show how a billing function was designed into the app by the development team over four episodes to afford potential physician users with billing usability, billing acceptability, billing authority and billing discretion. These affordances emerged as different elements of professional, state, managerial and market logics became activated, interpreted, evaluated, negotiated and designed into the digital technology through the team’s interactions with the clinician manager, a hybrid professional, during the app development process. Our findings contribute new insight to the affordance-based logics perspective by deepening understanding of the process through which multiple institutional logics play out in the design of affordances of digital technology. We also highlight the role of hybrid professionals in this digital transformation of frontline professional work.

This chapter provides an overview of two generally applicable frameworks relating to the use of technology-enhanced learning – ‘affordances’ and multimedia learning effects. First, the concept of ‘affordances’ as action potentials of technologies is identified as a way to think through technology-enhanced learning design possibilities, so as to help make technology selection decisions. Second, multimedia learning effects including the multimedia effect, the modality effect, the redundancy effect, the split-attention effect, and the personalization effect are presented as a scientific basis for understanding how to create cognitively effective learning experiences using text, images, sound, and video. Both affordances and multimedia learning effects are characterized as ongoing areas of research that are somewhat related, with the successful utilization of each depending on critical application by the designer.

Much of recent academic and professional interest in exploring digital transformation and enterprise systems has focused on the technology or the organizations' external forces, leaving internal factors, in particular employees, overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to explore digital literacy of employees as an organizational affordance to capture contextual factors within which digital technologies are situated and are used.

We used the evidence-based practice for information systems approach, and undertook a systematic literature review of 30 papers coupled with brainstorming with 11 professional experts on the neglected topic of digital literacy and its assessment.

This paper draws upon affordance theory, and develops a novel framework for conceptualization of digital literacy of employees as an organizational affordance. We do this by distinguishing digital literacy at the individual level and organizational level, and by assessing digital literacy through Information/Cognitive and Social Practice/Articulation affordances.

The current paper contributes to the notion of organizational affordances by examining the effect of interactions between employee-technology through digital literacy of employees in using digital technologies. We offer a novel conceptualization of digital literacy to improve understanding of the role of employee in digital transformation and utilization of enterprise systems. Thus, our definition of digital literacy offers an extension to the recent discussions in the IS literature regarding the actualization of affordances by bringing a lens of employees into the process.

This paper operationalizes digital literacy at organizational and individual levels, and offers managers a high-level tool to assess digital literacy of their employees. By doing so, managers can achieve the fit between employees' capabilities and digital technologies that will improve affordance actualization and support their digital transformation initiatives.

The study is one of early attempts to apply and extend affordance theory on digital literacy at organizational level by not limiting the concept to the individual level. The proposed framework improves the communication among researchers and between researchers and practitioners.

This paper aims to explore key collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration and remote work during the time of COVID-19. The purpose of this exploration is to improve the understanding of technology-supported collaboration in order to achieve individual and organizational success with the adoption, use and implementation of virtual collaboration in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.

Qualitative data is collected from 55 graduate students during a time of work transition due to COVID-19. This paper distills key collaboration technology affordances identified from participant feedback.

This paper identifies topics of virtual collaboration success as well as challenges related to organizational transitions during COVID-19. The findings from this work relate to four collaboration technology affordances including: (1) flexibility and productivity, (2) social connectedness and organizational culture, (3) technology support and (4) management and leadership. Additionally, this research provides insight into the complexities of virtual collaboration in these areas while also making recommendations for the post-pandemic future.

This research makes a contribution through the analysis of a unique set of data elaborating on participant experiences during a global pandemic as well as through the exploration of future implications.

Digital technology is crucial to improving a firm’s core competitiveness. However, the existing research on the relationship therein shows heterogeneity. Using digital technology can enhance competitive advantage, which is crucial for enterprises and scholars. Thus, based on the digital technology affordance theory, this study explores the relationship between digital technology affordance and digital competitive advantage.

Survey data were collected from 509 large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in China, and multiple regression and structural equation modelling were used to test the hypotheses. Specifically, we discuss the mediating role of digital business capability and the moderating role of organisational legitimacy.

Editability, association and visibility positively affect digital competitive advantage, and their coordination is strong. Further, they can help enterprises gain a competitive advantage through the mediating role of digital business capability (digital strategy, digital integration and regulation). However, the influence effect and action path differ per in different dimensions. Organisational legitimacy positively moderates the mediating effect of digital integration and regulation, and there is a moderated mediating effect. However, the moderating effect on the mediating effect of digital strategy is not significant.

Existing studies neglect the relationship between the coordination of digital technology functions and digital competitive advantage. This study provides a new theoretical explanation for an in-depth understanding of these issues. These findings promote the development of innovation theory and provide valuable insights for guiding the application of digital technology in enterprises.

Industry 4.0 brings new opportunities and challenges. This paper aims to focus on understanding how the affordances of digital technologies contribute to the integration of business processes in the context of Industry 4.0.

A qualitative case analysis is used to reveal the affordances of digital technologies for the integration of business processes. A manufacturing company, the producer of professional stainless-steel kitchens, which is known for the adoption of digital technologies, was selected for the research. Interviews, archival data and nonparticipant observation are the main data collection methods.

This study contributes to the general business process management field. Case analysis shows that digital technologies facilitate the integration of business processes, specifically certain affordances, such as accessing and updating, sharing and initiating.

This study is of a single case and therefore has some limitations. Future research should focus on the analysis of more cases for a better understanding of business process integration in the context of Industry 4.0.

The results of this research will help business managers better understand the importance of the development and proper adaptation of digital technologies in an organization.

This research has a twofold contribution to the fields of business process management and business process integration. First, the authors reveal how digital technologies facilitate business processes management in the context of Industry 4.0; and second, the authors identify the main mechanisms through which digital technologies contribute to business process integration.