Universität zu Köln

Gal, Uri, Berente, Nicholas and Chasin, Friedrich (2022). Technology Lifecycles and Digital Technologies: Patterns of Discourse across Levels of Materiality. J. Assoc. Inf. Syst., 23 (5). S. 1102 - 1150. ATLANTA: ASSOC INFORMATION SYSTEMS. ISSN 1558-3457

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Abstract

The technology lifecycle model is extensively used to study technology evolution and innovation. However, this model was developed for industrial-age material technologies and does not address digital technologies with nonmaterial elements. Therefore, a question emerges as to whether the level of technological materiality is implicated in different dynamics of innovation, as reflected in the technology lifecycle. Digital technologies evolve through discourse that involves interactions among multiple stakeholders that shape the evolutionary trajectory of the technology. Therefore, we set out to examine whether discourse about digital technologies that vary in their level of materiality manifests in different ways throughout these technologies' lifecycles. To do so, we conducted a study comparing the discourse around 10 digital technologies-five highly material and five highly nonmaterial-at different stages of their technology lifecycles. We identified three characteristics of discoursevolume, volatility, and diversity-and examined them for the 10 digital technologies by analyzing their corresponding Wikipedia articles. Our findings show that the discourse around technologies with different levels of materiality is similar in the initial era of the lifecycle but diverges in the two subsequent eras. In addition, we found that the discourse around highly nonmaterial technologies remains elevated for longer time periods, compared to highly material technologies. Based on these results, we put forth propositions that challenge and extend existing research on the relationships between the technological level of materiality, discourse, and trajectories of technology evolution.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Gal, Uri UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Berente, Nicholas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Chasin, Friedrich UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-672311
DOI:	10.17705/1jais.00761
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Assoc. Inf. Syst.
Volume:	23
Number:	5
Page Range:	S. 1102 - 1150
Date:	2022
Publisher:	ASSOC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Place of Publication:	ATLANTA
ISSN:	1558-3457
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY; ORGANIZING VISION; SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS; INNOVATION; STRATEGIES; ORDER; DISCONTINUITIES; RECONFIGURATION; PERSPECTIVE; WIKIPEDIA Multiple languages Computer Science, Information Systems; Information Science & Library Science Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/67231