Generativity in Algorithmic Systems

The paper aims to explores constitutive role of technology in organising. Specifically, I am interested in a particular instantiation of technology – an algorithm – and its generative role in entrepreneurial innovation process. I define algorithm as a step-by-step procedure that acts on a highly formalized information in a largely automated fashion to produce new outputs (process, decision or knowledge). Software algorithms encroach and permeate ever increasing arrays of products, services and organizational processes (Gillespie, 2013; Kitchin, 2017) and, through the pervasive application of digital technology to everyday activity, algorithms open novel pathways for value creation and value capture (Nambisan et al., 2017). The spectacular rise of digital ventures, organizations that mobilize algorithms to innovate and derive value from digital economy, provides a powerful case in point (George and Lin, 2017). Considering digital materiality of algorithm, I ask: how may we rethink innovation process to better account for the generativity of digital objects? What does innovation in algorithmic systems tell us about the nature of organising for innovation