A Theoretical Framework for Disruptive Changes Based on Information Dissemination

Abstract

Due to the recent pandemic and the rapid progress of ICT, higher education institutions have been undergoing rapid changes, such as digital transformation. Therefore IR-related sections must support it and evaluate progresses of such disruptive changes. In case of a disruptive change, it is important to evaluate it beforehand since it can be too costly and its impact can be serious. However, it is intrinsically difficult to deal with such changes because we need some data, which is available after some progress. In this paper, we propose a framework to evaluate such disruptive changes, defining information dissemination. In this framework, our daily behaviors are defined as a theory and a new theory with a different premise creates a disruption. With this framework, we deductively derive some findings, which are not obvious from existing approaches. So we can conclude that the proposed framework is fruitful. These findings include that information dissemination is derived to create disruptive changes and dissemination can develop a successive cascade. In addition, the proposed model can also explain why resistance to transformation is unavoidable. The main contribution of this paper is to show a deductive approach, which is not popular in IR, is effective to evaluate such disruptive changes.