A Sociotechnical Plan that Leads to Innovation

Introduction

     The purpose of this discussion board is two-fold.  This post begins with a short narrative explaining how the success of Polaroid Corporation was disrupted by the onset of digital imaging.  This post begins by discussing what went wrong for or with Polaroid.  The remainder of the post defines and reveals a sociotechnical plan.  The discussion of this sociotechnical plan includes an explanation of why this plan is relevant and the forces that support it.

What Went Wrong for Polaroid

     Polaroid Corporation enjoyed a great deal of success with their chemical-based instant photography well into the 1980s (Tripsas & Gavetti, 2000).  The 1980s and 1990s also began a subtle shift towards digital technologies including digital imaging.  The development of digital imaging did not catch Polaroid off-guard, and, in fact, Polaroid began their own research and development into electronic imaging and megapixel sensory (Tripsas & Gavetti, 2000).  Digital imaging became a disruptive technology to Polaroid despite their efforts because Polaroid’s top management viewed digital imaging as technology but not as a market shift.  Polaroid did not initially invest as they should in the sales and marketing of digital imaging, and competitors were able to gain market share (Tripsas & Gavetti, 2000).  Additionally, Polaroid was very tightly coupled to a business model based upon the retail of chemical film (Cozzolino, Verona, & Rothaermel, 2018).  As the retail of digital cameras flourished, Polaroid’s profits suffered.

A Sociotechnical Plan that Leads to Innovation

     According to Gordon Baxter and Ian Sommerville (2011), a sociotechnical process is one that considers human, social, and organizational factors collectively with technical capabilities in order to design said process.  Such a process exists to connect people via technology (Baxter & Sommerville, 2011).
     A sociotechnical capability this researcher would consider or plan to implement is a messaging that is specific to persons in a certain domain or are of expertise.  It would be to a question and answer (Q&A) sites.  Q&A sites generally have a singular purpose, and its users have a vested interest in the information shared there (Alam, 2016).  
     One such Q&A site is stackoverflow.com whereby software developers ask and answer questions relative to software implementation (Abdalkareem, Shihab, & Rilling, 2017).  This is site is supported by the technological force because the subject matter of the message threads is software development.  The social force is applicable as well because individuals of this particular skill socialize with one another and can even provide visual indicators that a suggested solution was successful.
     This Q&A site is relevant in that software developers glean answers to very specific questions and share program code.  Stackoverflow.com is a sociotechnical capability whereby the community of software developers is of benefit one to another (Abdalkareem, Shihab, & Rilling, 2017).  This researcher can attest this personally.

Summary

     Digital imaging was a disruptive technology to Polaroid Corporation because they did not initially recognize it as an opportunity.  They lost market share because of this.  Also discussed here was an example of the sociotechnical capability, stackoverflow.com.  It is the community of software developers sharing amongst themselves for the benefit of them all.

References

Abdalkareem, R, Shihab, E, & Rilling, J.  (2017).  What do developers use the crowd for?  A study using Stack Overflow.  IEEE Software, 34(2), 53 – 60.  doi: 10.1109/MS.2017.31.

Alam, A.  (2016).  Social question and answer sites:  The story so far.  Program:  Electronic Library and Information Systems, 51(2), 170 – 192.

Baxter, G. & Sommerville, I.  (2011).  Socio-technical systems:  From design methods to systems engineering.  Interacting with Computers, 23(1), 4 – 17.

Cozzolino, A., Verona, G., & Rothaermel, F. T.  (2018).  Unpacking the disruption process:  New technology, business models, and incumbent adaptation.  Journal of Management Studies, 55(7), 1166 – 1202.  doi:10.1111/joms.12352.

Tripsas, M. & Gavetti, G.  (2000).  Capabilities, cognition, and inertia:  Evidence from digital imaging.  Strategic Management Journal, 21(10 – 11), 1147 – 1161.