Levels of Success in Implementing Information Technologies

In this essay I argue that the key to implementing information technologies successfully in higher education rests on the convergence of three factors. First, an innovation must be properly framed in terms of stakeholders' expectations. Second, an environment favorable to innovation must be present. Finally, the pros of specific attributes of innovations must outweigh their cons. The seven other conditions, in which one or more of these factors are not positively weighted, result in differing degrees of success with different implications for leadership in educational institutions.