Translating evolving technology use into user stories: Technology life narratives of consumer technology use

Abstract

People acquire and buy technology in stores or online in the same way as any other consumer product, so understanding the user as a consumer of technology is essential. In this study, we investigate how the use of ubiquitous consumer technology evolves over time and suggest a theoretical account of how use evolves into different patterns of embodiment. Empirically, we followed 15 consumers of smartphones during a 6‐month field study and collected data via interviews, survey, and focus groups. Analytically, we view the user as a consumer of technology and develop three technology life narratives as patterns of embodiment. As a theoretical lens, we draw upon the theory of consumption values and approached use as a dynamic consumption process in which different values drive use over time. We found three distinct patterns of embodiment: that of conditionalists, aesthetic socialites, and functional enthusiasts. Conditionalists are pragmatic and use technology only when the device fulfils pre‐existing needs and the preferred alternative is unavailable. Aesthetic socialites use the technology as a fashion accessory and to manage their personal relationships. Functional enthusiasts are gadget lovers whose tinkering for the sake of exploration leads them to discover new needs that the technology can fulfil. Besides the three patterns of embodiment, we discovered a type of use that we argue falls outside of the values described in the theory of consumption values. This is the use of technology without any identifiable purpose other than just using the technology, which is driven by expositional value.

Role of situational context in use continuance after critical exergaming incidents

“…For example, inspired by the study by Bødker, Gimpel, and Hedman (), we suggest studying exergames by applying the time‐in/out concept to investigate how exergames are used in daily life and how the socio‐material relationship evolves over time. Another future IS research direction could be to investigate the evolving exergame use through technology life narratives, as exemplified by Hedman, Bødker, Gimpel, and Damsgaard (). Drawing from our present findings, future research could focus on investigating how to deliberately create critical incidents that positively influence use continuance.…”

An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Data Storytelling Competency and Business Performance

“…The literature has also demonstrated the value of storytelling to improve organizational processes and operations (Dykes, 2019;Elias et al, 2013) and collaboration quality, socialization and adaptation of new employees (Gustomo et al, 2019;Riche et al, 2018;Sundin, Andersson, & Watt, 2018), organizational and financial success (Vora, 2019;Welbourne, 2015), innovation capabilities and new product development and dissemination (Ciriello, Richter, & Schwabe, 2017;Dessart, 2018;Mirkovski et al, 2019), organizational knowledge management (Dalkir & Wiseman, 2004;Suzuki et al, 2018) and organizational learning and growth (Hedman, Bødker, Gimpel, & Damsgaard, 2018;Welbourne, 2015). While these studies provide conceptual evidence on the value and importance of using data storytelling in the organizational context, no research has been conducted to empirically test the relationship between data storytelling competency and business performance, and this is yet to be verified empirically through hypothesis testing.…”

“…Another way to understand the relationship between data storytelling competency and business performance is to examine whether and to what extent this relationship could be mediated by decision-making quality. Several conceptual studies suggest that the adoption of data storytelling in business analytics practices can contribute positively to business performance by enabling effective and timely data-driven decision-making (e.g., Damodaran, 2017;Davenport & Kim, 2013;Dessart, 2018;Dykes, 2019;Hedman et al, 2018;Herschel & Clements, 2017;Sundin et al, 2018;Vora, 2019). Building on these studies and considering how decision-making quality can mediate the relationship between data storytelling competency and business performance, the conceptual model developed by Boldosova and Luoto (2019) is particularly interesting as it postulates that the effective and appropriate use of data storytelling, resulting from the combined result of business analytics and data-driven environment, is positively related to decision-making quality.…”

“…Prior research (Brady et al, 2017) has emphasized the importance of data storytelling as a mechanism to bridge the knowledge gap between business analytics practitioners and the audience in understanding and interpreting analytical insights. At the same time, storytelling can help to fill in experiential gaps between employees by establishing a shared cognitive basis and collaborative work environment that enables them to develop their analytics and storytelling skills (Hedman et al, 2018). Given that human interaction and collaboration are critical to understanding and interpreting data insights (Riche et al, 2018), effective data storytelling in combination with business analytics techniques provide a powerful means for improving decisionmaking quality and business performance in organizations.…”

Special issue on storytelling and information systems

“…The third paper on “Translating evolving technology use into user stories: Technology life narratives of consumer technology use” (Hedman, Bødker, Gimpel, & Damsgaard, ) applies storytelling as an analytical research instrument. It condenses the diffusion of smartphones into rich stories on user behaviour.…”