Hospitality Analysis of IS Innovation

The problematic nature of popular structured methodologies and methodological frames that ‘straightjacket’ the complex social and organizational processes encompassing system development have been widely reported but few theoretically informed analyses or remedies have been proposed. We draw upon Ciborra’s insightful concept of Xenia (i.e. hospitality) to reveal the intrinsic and heterogeneous nature of the socio-technical interplay underlying processes of organizational innovation mediated through technologies. Social processes of development and implementation are illuminated through the notion of hospitality which offers interesting insights into ‘messy’ socio-technical dynamics, often invisible and ignored by structured methodologies