Résumé

Much research has been conducted to understand the value of IT innovations. However, research has examined such value primarily at the ex post stage, independently of the ex ante conditions that lead to adopting such innovations. This paper argues that there is a long shadow cast by past adoption conditions and decisions over the present assessment of value. We develop a conceptual framework that ties IT innovation value to the original motives underlying the adoption. The main premise is that the initial conditions that exist at the adoption stage (ex ante) can be used to understand the emphasis that should be placed on the different types of realized IT innovation value (ex post). Specifically, we develop a typology of four motivational forms of adoption that result from combining two dimensions of environmental uncertainty. We then develop propositions that relate each form of adoption to different components of IT innovation value. This paper extends the extant IT value literature by providing an account of IT innovation value that is consistent with the original motives of adoption. It also provides one way to integrate between the IT adoption and IT value streams, which hitherto have been treated separately. Keywords: IT innovations, IT value, IT adoption, Environmental uncertainty, Transaction cost theory, Institutional theory.