| How novel technologies diffuse is a key concern for theorists of organization and strategy, in studies of organization and industry change, in the understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation, and in questions of policy and practice. This dissertation explores how a novel technology is enacted within a well-defined, structured organizational field. The arguments I develop and test challenge the standard view of how technology diffuses with respect to the nature and impact of the boundaries of an organized field. I explore these ideas in an empirical setting---U.S. higher education---that is both a central site for studies of organization theory and strategy, and at the same time offers opportunities to extend the argument developed into commercial sectors. The dissertation features both in-depth case studies of elite adopters of online graduate programs as well as a survey of business and engineering schools.;The embedded constituency approach is situated theoretically within two key literatures: research on the diffusion of innovations in organizations and research on technology enactment. By embedded constituency, I signal multiple issues. First, there is a plurality of constituencies, most of whom are often not "exogenous" to the phenomenon. They bring distinct agendas and often have characteristic ways of making an impact on the higher education institutions. Accordingly, the embedded constituencies reshape the basic terrain of diffusion in ways that vary by field. The ultimate technological artifact, then, results from a negotiation process between local organizational entrepreneurs and their constituents. |
