The Role of Digitalization in New Practice Creation: The institutionalization of UX at AutoInc

Abstract

Although information systems research has brought the role of new practice creation in innovation processes to the fore, few studies focus on initial activities of digital innovation and how they eventually lead to institutional transformation. Using a framework of institutional enablers of digital innovation, this study analyses the role of new practice creation in digital innovation. The study is based on a 20-yearlong case study in the automotive industry and follows the emergence of User Experience (UX) practices in an automotive manufacturer. We do this study to understand how UX could develop from a marginal position scattered over the organization to the institutional core as the main logic of innovation. The study theorizes the role of organizational forms, digital institutional infrastructures, and digital institutional building blocks in the legitimization of new practices for organizational transformation.