An unsettled issue in academia is how institutions form the basis for trust-relations. Based on a summary of studies of institutional-based trust, ISE researcher Lars Fuglsang and Søren Jagd argue that “sensemaking may serve as a bridge between institutional contexts and interpersonal trust processes”. It is further argued that institutions are rather ‘emerging’ than ‘impacting’.

Trust is by cognitive scientist Paul Lewicki defined as “confident positive expectations regarding another’s conduct”, while institutions by sociologist William Richard Scott are defined as “cognitive, normative and regulative structures and activities that provide stability and meaning to social behavior”. Sensemaking is by organizational theorist Karl Edward Weick defined as “ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing”. Continue reading The actor-dimension of institutional-based trust →

The results in an explorative study by ISE researcher Ada Scupola and Virpi Kristiina Tuunainen, Aalto University, indicate a relationship between the strategic orientation to innovations and the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a tool in innovating facility management service processes.

The study investigated and conceptualized the strategic orientation to innovation and the roles of ICT in a specific service sector, facility management services in the empirical setting of Danish facility management organizations.

Different types of organizations, different roles
Based on the findings, the case organizations in the study are categorized as explorative, ambidextrous or exploitative in relation to the innovation in question. It is then empirically investigated which role ICT have in relation to each one of these categories; the roles being “enabler”, “support” or “utility”. Continue reading ICT in strategic orientation to innovation →