The Quest for New Theoretical Logics of Digital Innovation: Linking Properties of Digital Artifacts with their Conceptualizations in Organizations

In order to develop theories of digital innovation, it is necessary to explicitly consider the digital artifact that lends digital innovation its distinguishing features. Recent theoretical contributions elaborate the distinguishing properties of digital artifacts. These contributions have, however, not yet been systematically connected with conceptualizations that are used to frame empirical studies. A systematic review of empirical studies in Information Systems literature on digital innovation is conducted with a focus on how digital artifacts are being conceptualized. The paper contributes by discussing how each of the four conceptualizations enable the demonstration of a particular property of digital artifacts. This summary results in a meta-theory of artifacts in digital innovation. Based on this, a research agenda is constructed, with questions that would lead us closer to finding new theoretical logics of digital innovation