IT Impact on Innovation at the Individual and Group Level – A Literature Review

Abstract

Information technology (IT) is broadly recognized as an important element that supports innovation within organizations, however there has been relatively little integration of research in Information Systems on this topic. In this literature review, we examine and synthesize studies on the effects of IT in supporting innovation at the individual and group levels of analysis published in the past ten years in the leading Information Systems journals. We find that although innovation is inherently done by individuals and groups, there have been relatively few studies that examined how technology affects the innovation process and outcomes at the individual or group level. Further, much of the extant research is narrowly focused on incremental innovation. Through synthesis of the extant research, we identify opportunities for future research on the role of technology in innovation.