Coordinating innovation in digital infrastructure: The case of transforming offshore project delivery

Abstract

The relationship between digitalization, digital innovation, and digital transformation is an emerging topic in information systems (IS) research. Whereas IS researchers widely acknowledge that digitalization underpins both digital innovation and digital transformation, just how and by what mechanisms link digital innovation with digital transformation remains underexplored. Differentiating between ‘digital infrastructure innovation’ and ‘innovation in digital infrastructure’, this paper contributes towards current discussions by empirically elaborating how the open-ended and generative potential of digital innovation in practice has to be negotiated against the installed base of technical and organizational arrangements in digital transformation. We pursue this argument through a case study of digital innovation coordination in an inter-organizational digital innovation project with the goal of instigating digital transformation within the offshore construction industry.