| dc.description.abstract | One contemporary social problem that has gained considerable attention the past decade is the problem of household debt. Due to the 2008 financial crisis and the expansion of credit markets, (semi-)government bodies have payed increasing attention to addressing overindebtedness through debt advice in many European countries. In the Netherlands, the growing amount of household debt is accompanied by high societal costs. Policy, social and legal workers in the sector of debt advice stress the need of an integrative approach between stakeholders in order to address this problem. Widespread digitalization of (semi-)government bodies and an increasing number of ICT-enabled social initiatives may hold the answer to facilitating in such an integrative approach to addressing household overindebtedness. Whereas digitalization of government bodies and ICT-enabled innovations have been well documented, much less is known about development and adoption of ICT-enabled innovations use in organizations providing debt advice. As such, this thesis is devoted to understanding what explains debt advising organizations’ willingness to develop or adopt ICT-enabled innovations. Based on the Resource-Based View, the Institutional Perspective and scientific literature on organization innovation capability, a theoretical model is proposed that explains how we can understand debt advising organizations’ willingness to adopt or develop ICT-enabled innovations. In order to assess the extent to which the expectations hold, 18 interviews with experts from debt advising organizations in 8 countries in Europe were conducted. The results of this thesis suggest that organizations providing debt advice base the development and adoption of ICT-enabled innovations on competitive pressures on the one hand, and social environmental pressures on the other. In addressing competitive pressures, these organizations develop and adopt ICT-enabled innovations in order to enhance organization efficiency and organization-specific value. In addressing social environmental pressures, these organizations develop and adopt ICT-enabled innovations in order to meet cultural expectations. However, they often find themselves constrained in developing their ICT by legal mandates and negative side-effects of digitalization. In addressing competitive pressures and environment pressures, debt advising organizations to some extent promote their organization innovation capability through organization learning promotion on ICT-enabled innovations. This is done by connecting to knowledge institutes, by organizing meetings and by organizing reward and award systems related to ICT-enabled innovations. Ultimately, this thesis shows that organizations providing debt advice want to improve their service provision and organization efficiency using ICT-enabled innovations, while being constrained by legal mandates and side-effects of ICT-enabled innovations use on vulnerable citizens. | |
