HOW DO ORGANIZATIONS LEARN FROM INFORMATION SYSTEM INCIDENTS? A SYNTHESIS OF THE PAST,PRESENT, AND FUTURE

This paper reviews the literature on how organizations learn from information system (IS)incidents. We identify three modes of learningdependingonthe practices that constitute the learning process, the specificactors whoplay roles inlearning, the temporal orientationof the learningpractices, andthe specificcontextual focusof the learning. The literature focuses primarily onlearning frompast experience todrawlessons for future incidents (reflective learningmode). Yet, agrowingstream of literature stresses theimportance of learningthroughengagement withpresent incidents (embeddedlearningmode), andafewstudies suggest that organizations can learnprospectively toprepare for future incidents (prospective learningmode). We argue that althoughthese three learningmodes are effective, they donot adequately explainhoworganizationslearnfrom ISincidents whenusedinisolation. Since ISincidents unfoldincreasingly as setsof interactingevents across informationsystems andorganizational settings, organizational learningneedstobe theorizedas aniterative process amongthese learningmodes. We synthesize these three learning modesintoanintegrative framework and theorize about their supportive andinhibitingrelations. We suggest some opportunities for future research, which would advance our understanding of how organizations learn from IS incidents