Beyond the Fast Lane Narrative - A Temporal Perspective on the Unfolding of Digital Innovation in Digital Innovation Units

To develop and implement digital innovations many incumbent companies have set up digital innovation units (DIUs) primarily as part of their digital transformation journey. Despite a steadily growing body of knowledge, however, extant literature is in a nascent stage to explain the unfolding of digital innovations in such units. Drawing on empirical data from a multiple case study we adopt a temporal perspective to contribute to a better understanding of digital innovation in DIUs. To do so, we studied the DIUs of five manufacturing companies and were able to identify several other temporal aspects besides speed that influence or result from DIU’s digital innovation activities. We generalize our findings in the form of five propositions that depict the special role of time to inform extant literature.