The role of tools, artifacts and instruments in the Experimentation Process: a Boundary Object perspective

Recent literature has focused on the extensive use of experimentation by firms to overcome the hurdles of innovating under uncertainty conditions. However, experimentation encompasses the frequent involvement of different types of tools, artifacts, and instruments to ensure the right conveyance of meanings across stakeholders. However, the current understanding of the role of tools throughout the experimentation process is often limited to mentions and is lacking proper theoretical framing. Previous studies in organizational knowledge sharing defined the concept of boundary object as a means to convey information across individuals. The notion of boundary objects has since been the objects of several studies, related to how companies perform sensemaking, develop new products, or engage in strategic decision-making. Our study aims at investigating the role that tools, artifacts, and instruments play throughout the experimentation process, adopting the lenses of boundary objects to characterize their deployment in the experimentation process. Through a single-case study on a relevant intrapreneurship initiative, we try to disentangle how tools, artifacts, and instruments are employed in the experimentation process. Our study advances the extant understanding in experimentation, by deep diving into the use of tools, artifacts, and instruments across its process. Our study thus contributes to theory in strategic management and innovation, by grounding the role of tools, artifacts, and instruments in the experimentation process into extant theory in management, while better defining and conceptualizing their link to different steps throughout the experimentation process. Finally, our study also contributes to practice by providing managers useful guidelines on the types of tools to employ in specific phases when experimenting for strategy-making