Turning Isomorphic IT Innovations into Unique Capabilities

Firms often innovate with IT due to institutional pressures, which can lead into rash decisions and drive firms to innovate IT similarly, e.g. mimicking the industry leaders. This drives firms to look alike and turn homogeneous. However, recent observations show that firms can actually become heterogeneous while innovating with IT under institutional pressures. We argue that firms can learn from the IT innovation process and they can turn these learnings into better use of the technology, which can ultimately lead to heterogeneous capabilities. Thus in other words we argue that firms can revive disappointing IT innovations due to institutional pressure and turn them into competitive advantages. This study uses case studies to further explore this nascent phenomenon