Institutional perspectives on the process of enterprise architecture adoption

Organizations often adopt enterprise architecture (EA) when planning how best to develop their information technology (IT) or businesses, for strategic management, or generally for managing change initiatives. This variety of different uses affects many stakeholders within and between organizations. Because stakeholders have dissimilar backgrounds, positions, assumptions, and activities, they respond differently to changes and the potential problems that emerge from those changes. This situation creates contradictions and conflicts between stakeholders that may further influence project activities and ultimately determine how EA is adopted. In this paper, we examine how institutional pressures influence EA adoption. Based on a qualitative case study of two cases, we show how regulative, normative, and cognitive pressures influence stakeholders’ activities and behaviors during the process of EA adoption. Our contribution thus lies in identifying roles of institutional pressures in different phases during the process of EA adoption and how it changes overtime. The results provide insights into EA adoption and the process of institutionalization, which help to explain emergent challenges in EA adoption.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

ROOT CAUSES OF ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE PROBLEMS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a holistic approach that aligns IT resources with business processes and strategies. Thus, EA has been used in the public sector to improve services and service processes. How-ever, when EA programs are initiated, the organization faces several challenges, such as lack of re-sources or understanding, and radical changes in the organizational structures. In this paper, we study these problems in the public sector context and identify their root causes. We conduct a multiple-case study by deriving qualitative data from three provinces; each has different experiences, backgrounds, and skills. The findings highlight eight generic root causes and several public sector–specific problems. These findings help researchers and practitioners understand and promote EA, and avoid as many chal-lenges as possible as the root causes are known

Enterprise Architecture and Organizational Reform: A Project Debrief

This paper studies on how enterprise architecture (EA) is used as a tool to assist organizational reform. In particular, we examine how institutional factors influencing organization change process through an EA project. We conduct a qualitative case study and use institutional theory as a lens to analyze data from an organization. This analysis offers insights about how exogenous and endogenous factors influence organizational change, and how organizational structures get shaped, diffused, and institutionalized. Our study provides understanding how stakeholders are involved in project activities in multiple levels and phases of the institutionalization process; namely innovation phase, theorization phase, diffusion phase, and institutionalization phase

Assessing the Capability and Priority of Enterprise Architecture Implementation in Malaysian Public Sector

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an integrated approach of information systems, processes, organisation and people in aligning business and information technology together. However, there is a discrepancy in public sector EA implementation whereby the developing countries are still grappling with issues in the implementation while those developed countries are already harvesting the EA benefits and value. Hence, this study aims to investigate the capability and priority of public sector of the developing countries in implementing the EA by proposing an assessment model. The assessment model is based on Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. There are 27 EAI capability and priority criteria identified and grouped into six categories according to BSC perspectives namely Internal Process, Learning and Growth, Authority Support, Cost, Technology and Talent Management. Followed by AHP pairwise comparison in calculating the rank of each criterion which is presented via three case studies from Malaysian Public Sector agencies

Institutional Logics and Their Influence on Enterprise Architecture Adoption

Enterprise architecture adoption (EAA), often ironically known as “ineffective adoption,” is frequently marked by poor utilization and signals of failure. To date, comprehensive examinations of which factors influence EAA are lacking. This study aims to address this knowledge gap. The paper uses an interpretive multiple case-study approach using an institutional theory lens to conduct the research. The findings show that three institutional logics dominate EAA: managerialism, professionalism, and user logic. These logics drive stakeholder activities and behaviors and ultimately influence EAA processes and outcomes. The paper contributes to the literature by explaining how these three logics influence the adoption process. Practitioners will be able to use the logics discussed in this study to assess and prevent potential challenges to adoption by carefully examining the stakeholder behaviors and activities embedded in these logics.© 2019 Taylor & Francis. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Computer Information Systems on 17 Jan 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08874417.2018.1564632fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Enterprise Architecture in the Public Sector: Adoption and Institutionalization

Today’s organizations are utilizing technologies for building effectiveness management and services due to struggles with the various challenges of the information and communication technology age, such as integration, interoperability, agility, and change. Many view the enterprise architecture (EA) approach as a promising solution for coping with those challenges. Organizations also see the benefits of EA in dealing with other challenges, such as effective strategic planning, improved decision-making, and better business and information technology alignment. These benefits have led to an increased number of organizations adopting EA around the world, and some countries even have a law on EA, such as Finland and the US.Despite those EA benefits, EA practices pose a wide range of problems, from social to business to technological. Moreover, organizations that adopt EA struggle with limited signs of success, extremely slow utilization, and ineffective institutionalization. Although there are various studies on the matter, they tend to focus their efforts on working with the framework and its related issues, such as EA’s layers, methodologies, and tools. As a result, a comprehensive study about how EA gets adopted into organizations seems overlooked. The few exceptions, however, focus more on the outcomes rather than on insights into EA adoption, such as issues related to the root causes of problems, strategies for effective EA adoption, and the institutionalization process.Examining those issues would strengthen the theoretical foundation of EA adoption. It also could help practitioners improve the effectiveness of their EA adoption, as EA itself offers no value if it is not used in practice. Therefore, this research focuses on understanding insights into how EA gets adopted into organizations with dual studies. First is a study on the root causes of the problems and strategies for the effective adoption of EA in organizations. Second is a study on institutionalization processes when organizations adopt EA.The findings indicate several issues in EA adoption and institutionalization. First, there are several root causes from organizations, project teams, users, and EA itself. Second, there are various strategies and characteristics for effective adoption of EA practices. Third, different institutional pressures influence the institutionalization process in different phases. That process is influenced by differing institutional logic, and the perceptions and assumptions of senior managers about EA play important roles in EA adoption.The dissertation contributes to the literature by explaining what happens when organizations adopt EA. That is, it helps understand the problems, the institutional pressures in different phases of EA adoption, and the strategies for overcoming these challenges when organizations adopt EA. It also provides insights into the institutionalization process, when EA functionalities and features become the norms in practice. In addition, the research has implications for practice by providing several root causes of the problems and the different institutional features related to the stakeholders involved in the different phases of EA adoption. Furthermore, the study provides various legitimacy strategies that practitioners need to consider when they adopt EA. Even though there are similar strategies in organizations, they appear differently in practice. Finally, the study also identifies the importance of cognitive-cultural legitimacy for EA initiatives, meaning that EA practices depend on the stakeholders’ backgrounds, cultures, and characteristics.This dissertation is article-based and contains six peer-reviewed articles. The interpretive case study approach is used, and the empirical part of the study is based on four case studies at local government and ministerial levels within a country

Goodbye to Projects? Working paper 1: Annotated bibliography on livelihood approaches and development interventions.

YesThis paper is one in a series of working papers prepared under a research project on Goodbye to Projects? The Institutional Impacts of a Livelihood Approach on Projects and Project Cycle Management. This is a collaborative project between the Bradford Centre for International Centre for Development (BCID) with the Economic and Policy Research Centre (EPRC), Uganda; Khanya ¿ managing rural change, South Africa; and, the Institute for Development Management (IDM), Tanzania. The project is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) under their Economic and Social Research Programme (ESCOR).Department for International Developmen

Enterprise Architects’ Logics across Organizational Levels: A Case Study in the Norwegian Hospital Sector

In this paper, we report about a multilevel case study on the introduction of enterprise architecture (EA) in the Norwegian hospital sector. We utilize institutional logics as a theoretical lens, focusing on the enterprise architects’ logics that are underexplored in information systems research. We have col-lected empirical evidence at national (macro), regional (meso), and local (micro) levels. The findings are classified into nine categories with illustrative statements from the informants, demonstrating their reasoning about the contributions of EA. Furthermore, we identify tensions between enterprise archi-tects and managers and between enterprise architects and medical actors, which indicate the co-existence of multiple competing institutional logics. The most prominent tension is the paradox of EA—demands for local flexibility and autonomy at the micro level versus the predefined rules and standardization that EA imposes across all levels—which makes the institutionalizing process chal-lenging. The enterprise architect logics demonstrate similarities and differences across the various levels, indicating heterogeneity. We conclude this paper with a suggested persona of the enterprise architect, which illustrates the empirical findings

Enterprise Architecture in Healthcare and Underlying Institutional Logics: a Systematic Literature Review of IS Research

This paper reports on a systematic literature review of empirical studies in the information systems literature focusing on Enterprise Architecture (EA) in healthcare. 30 papers were selected for extended analysis. We utilized institutional logics as a theoretical lens and focused on the logics of IT professionalism, medical professionalism and managerialism. According to this lens, we identified three foci of interests. In addition, we utilized the institutional level as an analytical dimension. The logics of IT professionals and the purpose of organizational implications of EA were dominating. Generally, there is a need for more in-depth understanding for all logics, however, the logics of managerialism and medical professionalism need particularly more attention. Moreover, there is a need for more empirical research to understand how institutional logics for similar professions may differ across institutions. Finally, few studies on EA apply theoretical lenses, and EA research is immature in sense of theoretical contributions

Making the poor pay for public goods via microfinance: Economic and political pitfalls in the case of water and sanitation

This paper critically assesses microfinance's expansion into the provision of public goods. It focuses on the problem of public goods and collective action and refers to the specific example of water and sanitation. The microfinancing of water and sanitation is a private business model which requires households to recognise, internalise and capitalise the benefits from improved water and sanitation. This requirement is not assured. Water and sanitation, being closely linked to underlying common-pool resources, are public goods which depend on collective governance solutions. They also have shifting public/private characteristics and are merit goods which depend on networks to enable provision to take place. Two cases, from Vietnam and India, are presented and evaluated. Despite their dissimilar settings and institutional designs, evidence is found that both projects encountered similar and comparable problems at the collective level which individual microfinance loans could not address. The paper concludes that trying to make the poor pay for public goods runs into four pitfalls: politics, public capacity, values and equity. -- Das Papier untersucht die Auswirkungen von Mikrofinanzierung auf öffentliche Güter und kollektives Handeln am Beispiel der Errichtung von Wasser- und Sanitäranlagen in Ländern der Dritten Welt. Das zugrunde liegende private Geschäftsmodell geht davon aus, dass Haushalte mittels Mikrokredite die Vorteile verbesserter Wasser- und Sanitäreinrichtungen erkennen und sich auch finanziell zunutze machen können - diese Voraussetzung ist allerdings nicht gegeben. Zudem sind Wasser- und Sanitärversorgung meritorische Güter, für deren Bereitstellung Netzwerke erforderlich sind. Sie erfordern eine kollektive Verwaltung, weil sie sowohl öffentliche als auch private Merkmale aufweisen und mit Gemeinschaftsgütern eng verknüpft sind. Ausgangslage und institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen der beiden untersuchten Fallbeispiele in Vietnam und Indien sind unterschiedlich. Trotzdem geben die Ergebnisse der Studie Hinweise auf vergleichbare Probleme auf der kollektiven Ebene, die nicht über Mikrofinanzierung lösbar sind. Es zeigt sich, dass der Versuch, die Armen zur Finanzierung öffentlicher Güter zu bringen, an mehreren Hindernissen scheitert: an der lokalen Politik, einem unzureichend entwickelten öffentlichen Sektor, unterschiedlichen Wertvorstellungen und mangelnder Verteilungsgerechtigkeit.