IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v30y2021i4p412-431.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation in online higher-education services: building complex systems

Author

Listed:
  • David A. Harper
  • Félix-Fernando Muñoz
  • Francisco J. Vázquez

Abstract

Digitization is increasing the complexity and variety of educational services supplied and demanded. However, there is a lack of a systematic treatment of this phenomenon from the perspective of innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper employs the complex adaptive systems approach to explore how digitization changes the characteristics, generativity (combinatorial possibilities) and architecture of online educational services. Our main claims are that: (a) online courses (OCs) are modular complex hierarchical systems; (b) the development of new OCs is a significant type of innovation (not limited merely to technological change) brought about by entrepreneurial reconfiguration of modules that create new combinations in the design space of new educational services; (c) these new combinations generate new OC systems; and (d) OCs are embedded in broader institutional and social structures (e.g. universities) that co-evolve with technological change. By means of a formal combinatorial model, we examine the computational mechanism and the principles of connection-making that govern how new OCs are created and adapted.

Suggested Citation

  • David A. Harper & Félix-Fernando Muñoz & Francisco J. Vázquez, 2021. "Innovation in online higher-education services: building complex systems," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 412-431, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:30:y:2021:i:4:p:412-431
    DOI: 10.1080/10438599.2020.1716508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10438599.2020.1716508
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10438599.2020.1716508?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:30:y:2021:i:4:p:412-431. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GEIN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.