Analyzing Diffusion and Value Creation Dimensions of Replacing Enterprise Systems 4. 5. 6. 7. What are the relevant information technolo- gies that will enable the expected radical change to bring in the value? How should the organization walk the in- novation in order to be able to leverage the information technologies? What are the benefits expected from that radical innovation? How do those benefits align with the vi- sion, objectives, and value (eg, total value of ownership)? A mode of analysis is to regard the business case process as a hermeneutic process. It is an interpretive approach to understanding the way the executive sponsor and the upper management make the adoption decision meaningful (Boland Jr, 2002). Hermeneutics is an interpretative study used to understand a text where the portion of text is considered in relation to the complete text A question that this study attempts to answer concerns how the innovation (that is, the replace- ment of old enterprise information systems) relates to its diffusion (that is, the selling of the idea) to the upper management. Diffusion authorities argue that innovation is not possible without diffusion and likewise, diffusion is not possible without innovation. As the case has revealed, gatekeepers in risk-adverse organizations set the innovation agenda as a reaction to a perceived threat, which in this instance is the cessation of support by the incumbent vendor, and decide to adopt an innova- tion because of the perceived value. Although there are perceived attributes that are classical to the diffusion theory, the total cost of ownership and the number of organizations using the software and supported by the vendor are economic in na- ture. Whether the attributes are classical diffusion (marketing) or economic, the relationship between the innovation and its diffusion concerns value.