ICT implementation. Going beyond expectations? An essay of interpretation through competitive intelligence

Abstract

This article focuses on the uncertain relationship between organizational intelligence and ICT usage. It recalls the implementation effects of information and communication technologies ICT under the gaze of collective intelligence. Accordingly, the approach was tested through the observation and interpretation of interactions between a tool of collective intelligence, namely an online-system of indicators, and a network of agricultural cooperatives of a regional federation in southern France. The teachings of this research overstep traditional and theoretical approaches in terms of acceptance and appropriation. Consequently, the actor-network approach has been mobilized - It has revealed that the use of the translation process has led to the occurrence of interactions that go beyond previously intended objectives. Surprisingly, the tool appears as a collective intelligence support in the sense of revealing four facets: inductor (of projects) tool, a symbol (of new networks of exchange) tool, a reference (informational) tool, and lastly a pretext (or a support) tool of the network's concretization. Hence, this paper shows that the use of ICT could promote organizational intelligence in the measure of allowing a refocus on the human but also on perfect subjective information.