Natalia Levina
NYU Stern School of Business, Busines School, Faculty Member
During the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing has become a major government effort to slow down the spread of the infectious disease. As societies started implementing contact tracing technologies, they encountered tensions between... more
During the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing has become a major government effort to slow down the spread of the infectious disease. As societies started implementing contact tracing technologies, they encountered tensions between conflicting values involved in protecting human rights (e.g., freedom of movement versus health security). These tensions sparked a contestation process over the meaning of contact tracing technologies. Our study investigates how two societies, South Korea and Singapore, grappled with the meaning of contact tracing technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We frame our inductive findings by drawing on category research to build a theoretical model of the contestation processes around new technologies. We contribute to category research by showing how a societal value system involving conflicting values is invoked in contesting the meaning of new technologies. We unpack how category contestation is shaped by and shapes technology design and use, which, in...
Increasingly, firms source more complex and strategic as well as harder to codify information technology projects to low-cost offshore locations. Completing such projects success-fully requires close collaboration among all participants.... more
Increasingly, firms source more complex and strategic as well as harder to codify information technology projects to low-cost offshore locations. Completing such projects success-fully requires close collaboration among all participants. Yet, achieving such collaboration is extremely difficult because of the complexity of the context: multiple and over-1This paper was recommended for acceptance by Associate Guest Editor Kate Kaiser. lapping boundaries associated with diverse organizational and national contexts separate the participants. These boundaries also lead to a pronounced imbalance of resources among onshore and offshore contributors giving rise to status differences and inhibiting collaboration. This research adopts a practice perspective to investigate how differences
Management research is engaging increasingly with practice theories, drawing on these in management domains as wide as information systems, strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship. While practice-theoretical studies in these domains... more
Management research is engaging increasingly with practice theories, drawing on these in management domains as wide as information systems, strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship. While practice-theoretical studies in these domains share a commitment to understanding their various domains in terms of human activity, they developed relatively independently, and thus established their own idiosyncratic agendas. These agendas entail different understandings of what constitutes a ""practice-theoretical approach"" and the distinctive advantages that can be derived from engaging with it. We are now confronting a situation where leveraging and exploiting this diversity calls for a cross-domain dialogue. This symposium will serve as a platform for discussing the opportunities for cross-fertilization between the practice-theoretical approaches to strategy, information systems, leadership and entrepreneurship with the aim of advancing our understanding of the present an...
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This paper describes the research process of leveraging online archival data for developing process theories. It uses several examples of published papers and discusses some thorny issues involved.
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To date, most research on IT outsourcing concludes that firms decide to outsource IT services because they believe that outside vendors possess production cost advantages when facing environmental and technological change. Yet it is not... more
To date, most research on IT outsourcing concludes that firms decide to outsource IT services because they believe that outside vendors possess production cost advantages when facing environmental and technological change. Yet it is not clear what enables vendors to provide production cost advantages and how. The paper elaborates on these two questions by combining existing research literature with findings from a case study of one successful application maintenance outsourcing engagement. It then analyzes how answering these questions can help firms decide whether to outsource IT application maintenance and how to evaluate outsourcing vendors. It also suggests how vendors can become successful in today’s environment.
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The advent of the ‘gig’ economy has sparked a hotly contested debate about how on-demand, contracted employment will impact workers and society. At the heart of these debates are online labor markets such as Upwork (Elance- oDesk), Amazon... more
The advent of the ‘gig’ economy has sparked a hotly contested debate about how on-demand, contracted employment will impact workers and society. At the heart of these debates are online labor markets such as Upwork (Elance- oDesk), Amazon Mechanical Turk, and TopCoder, which provide a platform that instantly connects millions of people around the world for work at a speed and scale that was, just a short time ago, unimaginable. Some scholars and industry leaders think that these platforms will remain a peripheral part of the economy because of limits to the work, relationships, and careers they can support. Others think that these platforms represent the future of work, where the majority of workers will freelance, flexibly joining and leaving projects when the need for their expertise arises. In this symposium, we use four empirical studies of online labor markets to support an active discussion on this debate. We focus on two major problems that online labor markets will have to o...
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This paper uses the concept of “epistemic stance” to articulate the benefits of data science for pursuing knowledge in organizations. An epistemic stance refers to an enacted attitude toward the pu...
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The sharing economy is spreading rapidly worldwide in a number of industries and markets. The disruptive nature of this phenomenon has drawn mixed responses ranging from active conflict to adoption ...
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Organizational decision-makers need to evaluate AI tools in light of increasing claims that such tools out-perform human experts. Yet, measuring the quality of knowledge work is challenging, raising the question of how to evaluate AI... more
Organizational decision-makers need to evaluate AI tools in light of increasing claims that such tools out-perform human experts. Yet, measuring the quality of knowledge work is challenging, raising the question of how to evaluate AI performance in such contexts. We investigate this question through a field study of a major U.S. hospital, observing how managers evaluated five different machine-learning (ML) based AI tools. Each tool reported high performance according to standard AI accuracy measures, which were based on ground truth labels provided by qualified experts. Trying these tools out in practice, however, revealed that none of them met expectations. Searching for explanations, managers began confronting the high uncertainty of experts’ know-what knowledge captured in ground truth labels used to train and validate ML models. In practice, experts address this uncertainty by drawing on rich know-how practices, which were not incorporated into these ML-based tools. Discovering...
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The article focuses on management by foreign executives of software development projects that are sent offshore to low cost locations. The coordination challenge of establishing and maintaining eff...
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ABSTRACT
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Research Interests: Marketing, Sociology, Practice theory, Social Identity, Social identity processes, and 11 moreQualitative Methods, Knowledge sharing, Cross-Cultural Collaborations, Management of Innovation, Pierre Bourdieu, Offshoring, Business and Management, Offshore Engineering, Management Studies, Boundary Spanning, and Bicultural
This paper examines how an organization’s culture, and in particular its stance toward the pursuit of knowledge and innovation, matters when confronting new digitally enabled practices for generating novel insights. We draw on an in-depth... more
This paper examines how an organization’s culture, and in particular its stance toward the pursuit of knowledge and innovation, matters when confronting new digitally enabled practices for generating novel insights. We draw on an in-depth interpretive study of how two innovation consulting firms encountered crowdsourcing for innovation. Our findings suggest that, although both organizations relied on a similar set of organizational arrangements in their daily consulting work, they enacted different positions vis-a-vis crowdsourcing: one firm further experimented with it, whereas the other rejected it altogether. These different positions emerged as organizational actors examined, framed, and evaluated crowdsourcing as an alternative for generating knowledge. To interpret these findings, we draw on philosophy of science and develop the concept of organizational epistemic stance, defined as an attitude that organizational actors collectively enact in pursuing knowledge. Our analysis suggests that when organ...
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It has become essential and urgent that significant actors in the management field of research become aware of the current rejection of previously accepted philosophical caricatures. The unrealistic though ‘tidy’ paradigmatic dichotomy,... more
It has become essential and urgent that significant actors in the management field of research become aware of the current rejection of previously accepted philosophical caricatures. The unrealistic though ‘tidy’ paradigmatic dichotomy, positivism/quantitative/deduction versus interpretivism/qualitative/induction, is being rejected. Instead, a growing and ‘untidy’ consensus is emerging that helps to position GT in the research landscape. This growing consensus includes perspectives that range from nomothetic to idiographic and highlights data-driven exploratory approaches in opposition to theory-driven confirmatory approaches. While the foundational pillars of GT (emergence, theoretical sampling and constant comparison) have to be respected when conducting a GT study, there certainly is plenty of room for creativity in the implementation of a data-driven exploratory GT approach. GT is not limited to an all-encompassing method for qualitative or interpretive research: it is much broa...
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Page 1. 648 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2008 Papers to be Published in Future Issues of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT The following papers have been accepted for publication. They... more
Page 1. 648 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2008 Papers to be Published in Future Issues of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT The following papers have been accepted for publication. They will appear in future issues of this TRANSACTIONS. Research Articles A. Abd Rahman, N. Brookes, and D. Bennett “The Precursors and Impacts of BSR on AMT Acquisition and Implementation” HH Bi and DKJ Lin “RFID-Enabled Discovery of Supply Networks” ...
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ABSTRACT In 2006, Suddaby wrote a very interesting piece detailing what Grounded Theory (GT) “is not” that listed six common misconceptions: an excuse to ignore the literature, a presentation of raw data, theory testing, content analysis... more
ABSTRACT In 2006, Suddaby wrote a very interesting piece detailing what Grounded Theory (GT) “is not” that listed six common misconceptions: an excuse to ignore the literature, a presentation of raw data, theory testing, content analysis or word count, routine application of formulaic techniques to collected data, easiness, an excuse for the absence of methodology. Although it was at the time absolutely essential to highlight these misconceptions, it has now become even more essential and urgent to clarify what GT “is”: GT is currently taught in many doctoral schools across the world in ways that are much too limited to allow creativity and full use of possible resources. As a result, GT is nowadays mostly applied as a qualitative method. This limited use of GT restrains researchers’ capabilities, blocks some innovative possibilities in our times of ‘big data’ and the emergence of valuable and badly needed theories. This symposium brings together leading scholars, including GT’s originator, Barney Glaser, to reflect on what GT “is”. Amidst the recent social, economic and financial crises which have been spreading in many countries in the last few years, we have to develop new models and new paradigms in order to answer some essential questions that appear to have lost their established answers, and to engage some new ways of thinking on which to build a better world. With this panel symposium we propose GT as a full research paradigm that may help the management field of research in this immense endeavor. We propose to remind Academy scholars of the true realm of GT in order to give some freedom to their creativity while at the same time provide some essential guidelines.
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Among different concepts associated with the term blockchain, smart contracts have been a prominent one, especially popularized by the Ethereum platform. In this study, we unpack this concept within the framework of Transaction Cost... more
Among different concepts associated with the term blockchain, smart contracts have been a prominent one, especially popularized by the Ethereum platform. In this study, we unpack this concept within the framework of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). This institutional economics theory emphasizes the role of distinctive (private and public) contract law regimes in shaping firm boundaries. We propose that widespread adoption of the smart contract concept creates a new option in public contracting, which may give rise to a smart-contract-augmented contract law regime. We discuss tradeoffs involved in the attractiveness of the smart contract concept for firms and the resulting potential for change in firm boundaries. Based on our new conceptualization, we discuss potential roles the three branches of government – judicial, executive, and legislative – in enabling and using this new contract law regime. We conclude the paper by pointing out limitations of the TCE perspective and suggesti...
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This paper shows how an organization's culture and, in particular, its stance toward the pursuit of knowledge and innovation matters when confronting new digitally enabled practices for generating novel insights. We draw on an in-depth... more
This paper shows how an organization's culture and, in particular, its stance toward the pursuit of knowledge and innovation matters when confronting new digitally enabled practices for generating novel insights. We draw on an in-depth interpretive study of two innovation consulting firms and examine how these organizations encountered crowdsourcing for innovation. Our findings suggest that, while both organizations relied on a similar set of organizational arrangements in their daily consulting work, they enacted different positions vis-à-vis crowdsourcing: one firm further experimented with it, while the other rejected it altogether. These different positions emerged as organizational actors examined, framed, and evaluated crowdsourcing as an alternative for generating knowledge. To interpret these findings, we draw on philosophy of science and develop the concept of organizational epistemic stance, defined as an attitude that organizational actors collectively enact in pursuing knowledge. Our analysis suggests that when organizational actors encounter and explore new IT-enabled practices for pursuing knowledge, such as crowdsourcing and big data analytics, they are likely to remain committed to their epistemic stance as they construct diverse images of this new practice and judge its potential value. This paper contributes to our understanding of encounters with and adoption and diffusion of new organizational practices and offers new ways of thinking about crowdsourcing.
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We examine the practice of nominating bicultural immigrants to manage knowledge-intensive projects sourced from their host to their home countries. We focus on their actions vis-à-vis global collaborators and unpack psychological... more
We examine the practice of nominating bicultural immigrants to manage knowledge-intensive projects sourced from their host to their home countries. We focus on their actions vis-à-vis global collaborators and unpack psychological processes involved. Managers in these positions have to navigate the workplace social identity threat that arises from being associated with the home country group – a lower status group in this context. How they navigate this threat shapes the way they use their bicultural competencies and authority as managers. When they embrace their home country identity, immigrant managers tend to enable knowledge-based boundary spanning through actions empowering home country collaborators, such as teaching missing competencies, connecting to important stakeholders, and soliciting input. Instead, when distancing from their home country identity, they tend to hinder collaborators by micromanaging, narrowing communication channels, and suppressing input. We develop theoretical implications for the study of global boundary spanning, bicultural managers, and workplace social identity.
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Knowledge Management (KM) literature has centrally focused onorganization's ability to build practices that integrate diverseexpertise across professional, organizational, industry and otherboundaries. In this paper we investigate how... more
Knowledge Management (KM) literature has centrally focused onorganization's ability to build practices that integrate diverseexpertise across professional, organizational, industry and otherboundaries. In this paper we investigate how an organizationalcompetence in boundary spanning emerges in practice. We draw on theconcepts of boundary spanner and boundary object and on thepractice-based view of KM in organizations to understand the emergenceof boundary spanning in practice, which we define as relating practicesfrom diverse fields. We contrast data from two qualitative, longitudinalfield studies to draw our conclusions. We argue that for boundaryspanning to emerge in practice a new joint field, which unites agent ina common pursuit, needs to be produced. Engagement of agents in thispractice partially transforms their practices in local fields so as toaccommodate the interests of their counterparts. Those agents who engagein negotiating the nature of this new field become bound...
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... Recommended Citation. Boland, Richard; Jones, Matthew; Levina, Natalia; Orlikowski, Wanda; and Wagner, Erica, "Time, Times, and Timing: Taking Temporality Seriously in Information Systems... more
... Recommended Citation. Boland, Richard; Jones, Matthew; Levina, Natalia; Orlikowski, Wanda; and Wagner, Erica, "Time, Times, and Timing: Taking Temporality Seriously in Information Systems Research" (2004). ICIS 2004 Proceedings. Paper 89. ...
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ABSTRACT J-TRADING is a US-based arm of a Japanese keiretsu that is focused on commodity trading between the East and North America counting about 350 employees in the US. It has experienced problems with its information technology (IT)... more
ABSTRACT J-TRADING is a US-based arm of a Japanese keiretsu that is focused on commodity trading between the East and North America counting about 350 employees in the US. It has experienced problems with its information technology (IT) infrastructure and help-desk functions. IT employees were not motivated to work on these rather mundane tasks leading to quality and cost issues. J-TRADING CIO decided to solve the problem by outsourcing both functions. The case relays J-TRADING's outsourcing journey through its ups and downs discussing the process of vendor evaluation and selection, task transition, relationship management, and business outcomes. The case provides full financial details necessary for financial analysis and asks students to evaluate the sourcing decision itself as well as vendor selection and governance processes. It also asks students to elaborate on alternative sourcing approaches such as offshoring and cloud-based solutions.
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... literature on immigrants and biculturals. Immigrants as Bicultural Liaisons ... work situations in another culture. (Tung & Lazarova, 2006) Thus, it is important to understand this process if we want to further unpack the role... more
... literature on immigrants and biculturals. Immigrants as Bicultural Liaisons ... work situations in another culture. (Tung & Lazarova, 2006) Thus, it is important to understand this process if we want to further unpack the role of immigrants in international management. ...
This paper describes the research process of leveraging online archival data for developing process theories. It uses several examples of published papers and discusses some thorny issues involved.