Path Creation in Digital Innovation : A Multi-Layered Dialectics Perspective

We extend the path creation literature by developing a dialectic perspective of its multi-layered nature. In particular, our perspective focuses on the process by which designers shift their attention across different layers of digital innovation in the pursuit of a particular innovation path. To better understand path creation in digital innovation, we draw on a six-year in-depth field study of designers at CarCorp and its owner, GlobalCarCorp. Because of the reciprocal nature of path creation and path dependency, the design agency of CarCorp's path creators is embroiled in tensions and contradictions. The reciprocity of dominant, emergent, and residual design structures serves as an underlying generative force for breaking away from the current innovation path of the studied automaker