Dr. Brian T. Pentland, Michigan State University
The Main Street Capital Partners Intellectual Capital Endowed Professor
Department: Accounting and Information Systems
https://broad.msu.edu/profile/pentlan2/,

ONLINE via Microsoft Teams
To attend, please request a seminar link via email:  sxh147330@utdallas.edu. 

From Lock-in to Transformation: A Path-centric Theory of Emerging Technology and Organizing

Abstract:   We offer a path-centric theory of emerging technology and organizing that addresses a basic question: when does emerging technology lead to transformative change? A path-centric perspective on technology focuses on the patterns of actions afforded by technology-in-use. We identify performing and patterning as self-reinforcing mechanisms that shape patterns of action in the domain of emerging technology and organizing. We use a dynamic simulation to show that performing and patterning can lead to a wide range of trajectories, from lock-in to transformation, depending on how emerging technology-in-use influences the pattern of action. When emerging technologies afford new actions that can be flexibly recombined to generate new paths, decisive transformative effects are more likely. By themselves, new affordances are not likely to generate transformation. We illustrate this theory with examples from the practice of pharmaceutical drug discovery. The path-centric perspective offers a new way to think about generativity and the role of affordances in organizing.