Yasser Rahrovani

• Negoita, B.; Rahrovani, Y.; Lapointe, L.; Pinsonneault, A., 2022, "Distributed IT Championing: A Process Theory", Journal of Information Technology, March 37(1): 2 - 30.
  Abstract: Championing is key to the success of an IT implementation. Recently, changes in the nature of technologies used in organizational contexts and changing organizational structures call for a renewed focus on IT championing in order to explain its distributed nature. Following an analytic induction approach and drawing from semi-structured interviews with 37 practitioners (physicians, residents, nurses, IT staff and administrators) in three healthcare-related settings, the study conceptualizes distributed IT championing as a process constituted of multiple individuals’ behaviors, unfolding over time, that proactively go beyond formal job requirements in support of an IT implementation. While multiple individuals may enact similar championing behaviors, the data indicates that multiple individuals may also enact distinct, yet complementary, championing behaviors over the course of the IT implementation. Overall, distributed IT championing evolves through cycles of distinct stages of bridging-in, bonding, and bridging-out, with each stage being shaped by different dimensions of social capital. Also, IT artifacts that are particularly generative appear more conducive to distributed IT championing than closed ones. This paper contributes to extant literature on IT championing by developing a process model of distributed IT championing in the context of an IT implementation.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02683962211019406

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02683962211019406

• Rahrovani, Y.; Pinsonneault, A., 2020, "Innovative IT Use and Innovating with IT: A Study of the Motivational Antecedents of two Different Types of Innovative Behaviors", The Journal of the Association for Information Systems, July 21(4): 936 - 970.
  Abstract: The paper distinguishes two different types of innovative behaviors with information technology (IT): innovative IS use (IU) and innovating with IT (IwIT). While the former focuses on changing the technology and the work process to better support one’s existing work goals, the latter focuses on using IT to develop new work-related goals and outcomes. Drawing on Parker’s theory of proactive behavior, the paper compares the motivational antecedents and consequences of these two innovative behaviors with IT. Our model hypothesizes that three generic types of motivation differentially affect IwIT vs. IU. The paper also explores the moderating role of slack resources on the effect of motivation on the two innovative behaviors with IT. Data from a survey of 427 IT users from North American companies show that social motivation affects IwIT (but not IU); intrinsic motivation is positively related to IU (but not IwIT), and internalized extrinsic motivation affects both IU and IwIT. Further, the results indicate that the moderating role of slack resources on different motivational paths is not a one-size-fits-all effect, that is, IS slack resources only moderates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and IwIT. We also differentiated the consequences of IwIT from IU. The post hoc analysis shows that IwIT is significantly related to individual mindfulness at work, but IU is not. The paper contributes to IS research by offering a rich conceptualization of IwIT and examining its motivational antecedents and consequences, compared to IU.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol21/iss4/5/

  http://dx.doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00625

• Rahrovani, Y., 2020, "Platform Drifting: When Work Digitalization Hijacks Its Spirit", The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, June 29(2)
  Abstract: Organizations are increasingly digitalizing the work associated with information exchange by using enterprise social media. However, social media’s openness to outsider users poses significant challenges to maintaining alignment between social media logic (or platform logic that guides decisions and actions on the platform) and the dominant organizational logic. Through an in-depth, longitudinal, abductive study of three successive social media implementations in a single organization, I explore the process of maintaining (or losing) social media alignment and its long-term consequences on the nature of the work and its underlying logic. The paper shows that digitalization exposes the work to continuous adjustment within and across three elements of digital work: digital infrastructure work (embracing new uses of the platform at the user level), digital strategy work (redesigning governance policies), and aligning work (fitting uses with digital work logic). The findings show that despite initial social media alignment, through continuous coevolution of these three elements, the platform logic underlying digital community work on social media eventually drifted away from supporting the organization’s original logic of cohesion to supporting an alternative logic of inclusivity. Accordingly, a process model of the drifting has been developed. By taking a closer look at actual practices, the paper contributes to digital work research by identifying distinct elements of digital work involved in social media (mis)alignment and illustrates the profound, long-term consequences of social media on the nature of the work.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2020.101615

• Moeini, M.; Rahrovani, Y.; Chan, Y. E., 2019, "A Review of the Practical Relevance of IS Strategy Scholarly Research", The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, June 28(2): 196 - 217.
  Abstract: While studies suggest that IS strategy is an important topic for practitioners, in-depth explorations of the potential practical relevance of this research area are lacking. In this paper, we develop a multidimensional framework of potential practical relevance and use it to conduct a multimethod descriptive review of 109 IS strategy papers published over the past 10years in top IS journals. The framework contributes to the IS literature by synthesizing various characteristics that make a paper conducive to being practically relevant. The review highlights how IS strategy research has offered the potential for practical relevance in the past and recommends opportunities to increase this, especially in the digitalization era.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2018.12.003

• Rahrovani, Y.; Pinsonneault, A.; Austin, R. D., 2018, "If You Cut Employees Some Slack, Will They Innovate?", MIT Sloan Management Review, August 59(4): 47 - 51.
  Abstract: The idea of using slack resources -- in the form of time, technology, and support -- to bolster employee innovation falls in and out of favor. We found that different types of employees respond in different ways to slack innovation programs; that different kinds of slack resources are better suited to certain types of employees than they are to others; and that different kinds of slack innovation programs produce different kinds of innovation. Our findings suggest six issues for companies to consider in designing and implementing slack innovation programs: 1. Slack innovation programs are not one-size-fits-all undertakings. 2. Encouraging employee innovation requires managerial support at all levels. 3. Combine slack resources with appropriate motivational framing. 4. Provide a "safe place to play" for employees who have low expertise and/or low self-assessed innovation. 5. Employ the right kinds of slack for the right employees. 6. Design slack innovation programs for the type of innovation you want.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/if-you-cut-employees-some-slack-will-they-innovate/

• Rahrovani, Y.; Addas, S.; Pinsonneault, A., 2014, "Exploring the Long Shadow of IT Innovation Adoption Decisions on IT Value", Systèmes d'Information et Management, December 19(4): 31 - 87.
  Abstract: 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.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.cairn.info/revue-systemes-d-information-et-management-2014-4-page-31.htm#

  https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1664/41a52dad5a34ee029ed91249028414722afe.pdf

• Rahrovani, Y.; Kermanshah, A.; Pinsonneault, A., 2014, "Aligning IT for Future Business Value: Conceptualizing IT Project Portfolio Alignment", Data base for Advances in Information Systems, August 45(3): 30 - 53.
  Abstract: IS research has predominately studied the alignment of existing IT applications with current strategies. This provides an assessment of the current business value of IT. However, given IT investments are long-term and given that contemporary firms evolve in highly dynamic environments, it is also important to consider the alignment of IT applications that are under development. These applications affect the future business value of IT. This paper rethinks the notion of alignment to include IT applications in development. It conceptualizes the notion of IT project portfolio alignment and develops and tests a model that measures portfolio alignment in a bottom-up process based on individual IT projects. Several formulation methods are proposed and compared.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2659254.2659257

  https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2659254.2659257

• Rahrovani, Y.; Chan, Y. E.; Pinsonneault, A., 2014, "Determinants of IS Planning Comprehensiveness", Communications of the Association for Information Systems, March 34(59): 1133 - 1155.
  Abstract: Organizations use different approaches when they plan for information systems (IS). IS planning (ISP) approaches range on a continuum with two alternative approaches as the polar ends: comprehensive to incremental. For different IS-related decisions, organizations may simultaneously use different approaches. While the heterogeneity of ISP approaches has been generally acknowledged in IS research, the contingent factors that lead organizations to choose approaches that vary in comprehensiveness are understudied. Our study explores contingent factors that influence IS planning approaches in organizations. Using interview data from six small and medium-sized organizations, we identify categories of technology- and organization-related factors that affect ISP comprehensiveness and discuss related management and research implications.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol34/iss1/59

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