Innovation in information technology is well established in developed nations; newly industrializing and developing nations have been creating governmental interventions to accelerate IT innovation within their borders. The lack of coherent policy advice for creating government policy for IT innovation signals a shortfall in research understanding of the role of government institutions, and institutions more broadly, in IT innovation. This paper makes three points. First, long-established intellectual perspectives on innovation from neoclassical economics and organization theory are inadequate to explain the dynamics of actual innovative change in the IT domain. A broader view adopted from economic history and the new institutionalism in sociology provides a stronger base for understanding the role of institutions in IT innovation. Second, institutional intervention in IT innovation can be constructed at the intersection of the influence and regulatory powers of institutions and the ideologies of supply-push and demand-pull models of innovation. Examples of such analysis are provided. Third, institutional policy formation regarding IT innovation is facilitated by an understanding of the multifaceted role of institutions in the innovative process, and on the contingencies governing any given institution/innovation mix.

Blockchain technology is often referred to as a groundbreaking innovation and the harbinger of a new economic era. Blockchain might engender a new type of economic system, the blockchain economy. In the blockchain economy, agreedupon transactions would be enforced autonomously following rules defined by smart contracts. The blockchain economy would manifest itself in a new form of organizational design-decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)-which are organizations with governance rules specified in the blockchain. We discuss the blockchain economy along dimensions defined in the IT governance literature: decision rights, accountability, and incentives. Our case study of a DAO illustrates that governance in the blockchain economy might radically depart from established notions of governance. Using the three governance dimensions, we propose a novel IT governance framework and a research agenda for governance in the blockchain economy. We challenge common assumptions in the blockchain discourse, and propose promising information systems research related to those assumptions.

The long.standing debate over whether to centralize or decentralize computing is examined in terms of the fundamental organizational and economic factors at stake. The traditional debate is evaluated, and found to focus predominantly on issues of efficiency versus effectiveness, with solutions based on a rationalistic strategy of optimizing in this trade-off. A behavioral assessment suggests that the driving issues in the debate are the politics of organization and resources, centering on the issue of control. The economics of computing depolyment decisions are presented as an important issue, but one that often serves as a field of argument in which political concerns are dealt with. The debate in this light appears to be unresolvable in the long run, although effective strategies can be developed when the larger issues are recognized. The current situation facing managers of computing, given the advent of small and comparatively inexpensive computers, is examined in detail, and a set of management options for dealing with this persistent issue is presented.

Researchers in the information system (IS) field have recently called for the field to legitimate itself by erecting a strong theoretical core at its center. This paper examines this proposition, and concludes that it is logically invalid and does not recognize ample evidence to the contrary from the history of other disciplines. We construct a broader concept of academic legitimacy around three drivers: the salience of the issues studied, the production of strong results, and the maintenance of disciplinary plasticity. This analysis suggests that to remain successful, the IS field needs intellectual discipline in boundary spanning across a "market of ideas" concerning the application of information technology in human enterprise.

Application of computer and communications technology to cooperative work and group decision making has grown out of three traditions: computer-based communications, computer:based information service provision, and computer-based decision support. This paper reviews the group decision support systems (GDSSs) that have been configured to meet the needs of groups at work, and evaluates the experience to date with such systems. Progress with GDSSs has proved to be slower than originally anticipated because of shortcomings with available technology, poor integration of the various components of the computing "package," and incomplete understanding of the nature of group decision making. Nevertheless, the field shows considerable promise with respect to the creation of tools to aid in group decision making and the development of sophisticated means of studying the dynamics of decision making in groups.