Actor‐network Theory and Technology Innovation: Advancements and New Concepts

Citation

du Preez, M. (2012), "Actor‐network Theory and Technology Innovation: Advancements and New Concepts", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 142-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2012.36.1.142.1

Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a research framework to study information systems (IS) has been around for a number of years. However, IS researchers interested in a holistic approach to socio‐technical research only recently have started to use ANT as a framework for their studies. In order to help provide scholarly publications on ANT, Arthur Tatnall compiled and edited Actor‐network theory and Technology Innovation. This new resource provides a comprehensive look at the development of ANT and how it can be applied to technological innovation.

The chapters included in the book describe case studies that have used ANT as an explanatory framework to guide their investigations. Some of these studies also have combined ANT with other approaches. One example is the study reported in Chapter 3; the authors suggest a hybrid approach that combines the respective strengths of social network analysis (SNA) and ANT in order to facilitate the realisation of healthcare network‐centric operations. This “S'ANT” approach also provided the Wickramasinghe, Bali and Goldberg study (Chapter 15) with a rich lens of analysis in their quest to develop a chronic disease self‐management model.

According to Tatnall, the process of innovation involves having new ideas accepted and new technologies adopted and used. In Chapter 4 Tatnall compares and contrast the three most important approaches used to theorise technological innovation. These are Innovation Diffusion, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Translation. He also provides examples of how each of these approaches is used in different situations.

Chapter 5 employs the notion of translation introduced in ANT literature to study bio‐fuel development in Indonesia, while the authors in Chapter 7 generate a research model (The Internet Acceptance Model) to describe academics' information technology usage behaviour in their work.

A last chapter of personal interest is Chapter 16, which describes how ANT was employed to investigate the impact of a network of actors on the development and implementation of information technology strategy in an organisation. The two researchers, Iaymy and Tatnall, used ANT because it could provide them with a useful perspective on the importance of relationships between both human and non‐human factors.

Although a list of references concludes each chapter, a compilation of references also appears at the end of the book. This is a very useful feature in that readers need not work through the individual chapter reference lists to find the sources they are looking for. A useful index concludes the volume, although the references to page numbers could have been presented in a friendlier manner.

Actor‐network Theory and Technology Innovation is another solid volume in the Premier Reference Source Series. It also is a very valuable resource on ANT research and shows how the ANT framework can be used as an approach to technological innovation. Furthermore, it shows the link between ANT, technological innovation and information communication technology.