Adaptation to Work Processes Embedded in IS Packages: An Organizational Routines Perspective

Although the adoption of information system (IS) packages offers many benefits over the development of custom-made IS, organizations often face severe difficulties in their adaptation to work processes embedded in the product and get unexpected and undesirable effects such as a decrease in IS post-adoption usage. By adopting organizational routines theory as its theoretical lens for interpreting results, this qualitative study’s goal is to better understand this adaptation process and how it relates to IS post-adoption behavior. This proposed dissertation should contribute to IS theory and practice by providing insights on: the effects of possible misfits between IS packages designed for large business organizations yet applied within less conventional organizations, the organizations’ internal dynamics as they adapt to work processes embedded in IS packages and their influence on IS package post-adoption behavior, and the role of technology’s material properties in organizational change and organizational routines

Microprocesses of healthcare technology implementation under competing institutional logics

The healthcare sector is one where two co-existing and competing institutional logics – professional and market logics – occur. Following extant research on institutional logics and institutional work, we propose to understand “what microprocesses and institutional practices do institutional actors enact during the implementation of healthcare IT system? What are the impacts of these practices on project outcomes?” In our study, we were interested to understand how actors within organizations were constrained and enabled by the co-existing and competing institutional logics as they implemented a new integrated health IT project. Health IT implementation projects are especially revelatory episodes since different stakeholders with different logics need to collaborate closely and build integrated solutions to make such projects successful. Furthermore such projects typically aim to support significant organizational and even institutional change occur. It is our goal to understand the interplay between actors and their competing logics within such a context

Understanding Project Survival In An Es Environment: A Practice Perspective

Modern organizations are increasingly choosing to adopt off-the-shelf software applications (e.g., Enterprise Systems, ES) rather than develop tailor-made solutions. However, many studies have shown that adopting prepackaged software is difficult with these large scale, highly integrated ES, amplifying the potential for organizational conflict – in part due to their embedding of external ‘best practices.’ Research has begun investigating the process by which these best practice designs are eventually resolved within the implementing organization. We contribute to this emerging literature by seeking to explore project survival – the turnaround process by which a troubled project at go-live becomes a working information system. Using data from an intensive qualitative field study, we argue that practices are negotiated through processes of use rather than being permanently and systematically selected during a particular moment in time. Thus, we find that project survival is achieved as an outcome of a continued process of negotiation in the post-implementation period

Applying Framing Theory in Digital Transformation Research: Suggestions for Future Research

Meaning-making processes are essential to guide new action pathways in organizations. How organizations engage in meaning making of digital technologies should therefore be of particular interest in digital transformation (DT) research. This study explores how an existing theory of meaning making in organizations, namely, framing theory, can be applied in DT research. It contributes to the literature by offering a synthesis of framing theory, with an emphasis on framing of digital and information technologies in organizational contexts and proposing research questions inspired by framing theory for future DT research

The Mangle of Practice in Enterprise System Implementation: Temporal Emergence and Material Knowing

In this Research-in-Progress paper, we explore a practice-based view of Enterprise System (ES)implementation. Drawing on Andrew Pickering’s “Mangle of Practice”, we discuss how an EnterpriseSystem becomes a workable system over time through a dialectic of resistance and accommodation.Based on a longitudinal study of an ES implementation project in a global IT organization located inthe U.S, we identified the temporal dimensions of an ES that emerged as a result of organizationalpractice. We further explore how activities of knowing are conducted through organizational practice.The study indicates some promising contributions. First, the study will contribute to IS research byoffering a novel view that allows IS researchers to understand ES implementation as a cultural andhistorical practice. Second, the study will contribute to IS methodology by showing how a longitudinalresearch study is powerful to study ES implementation when we adopt a practice-based view. Third,the study will contribute to knowledge management literature by especially focusing on how themateriality of technology plays an important role in knowing activities in ES implementation projects.Finally, the study will contribute to practitioner research by bringing back managerial attention to‘practice’ and explains how bringing attention to organizational practice is important in ESimplementation

EXPLORING TARIFF-CHOICE PREFERENCES IN B2B ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE ACQUISITION SETTINGS

The acquisition of packaged software is gaining importance. The most crucial task during enterprise software acquisition is the selection of a software product and accompanying license model. The license model (or tariff) chosen severely impacts the total costs of the purchased solution over its life cycle and, thus, should be evaluated carefully. Existing literature from different decision contexts suggests that tariff choices are often times biased, leading to non-optimal decisions and costs. With this paper, we explore whether certain tariff-choice preferences and biases exist in the context of software acquisition. Hence, we analyse data from a multiple case study with five cases in four large organisations and base our findings on interviews with 19 decision-makers from IT, business, and procurement. The insights we gain from six interviewees especially point to the existence of both flat rate and pay-per-use biases in organizational contexts. Additionally, we find initial support for the relevance of prospect- theoretical reference points as a cause for tariff-choice biases. Therefore, our research can help practitioners to optimize their tariff choices in organizational buying situations and we present new avenus for future research

Technological Frames of Reference in Software Acquisition Decisions: Results of a Multiple Case Study

Packaged software has gained importance across organizations. While literature has studied the adoption and implementation of packaged software extensively, research on software acquisition has been limited. Especially, scholars have called for more research from a sociological point of view. Software acquisition projects are complex endeavors during which multiple stakeholders and perspectives interact. With this study, we strive to illustrate social interactions in software acquisition decisions through the theoretical lens of technological frames of reference. We conducted a multiple case study with 15 experts from IT, business, and procurement. We find evidence for distinct technological frames across departments that are combined during the software acquisition process, ultimately resulting in common understanding and consensus. Furthermore, we identify eight salient framing effects that facilitate this dynamic alignment of frames. Our results allow for an extension of technological frames of reference theory and support decision makers in optimizing their software acquisition decisions and processes

Managing Risks in a Failing IT Project: A Social Constructionist View

Why do IT projects continue to stumble, despite the proliferation of risk management methodologies and a growing body of knowledge on project risk assessment and mitigation? In this paper, we propose an alternative theoretical perspective that views project risk as a social construction process shaped by the risk accounts of social groups and actors within an implementation context. Risk management is embedded in the social processes where risks are negotiated and contested, with some risk accounts amplified and some attenuated. Through the analysis of a large IT implementation in an Asian logistics firm and its trajectory of successive crises, we examine the process of the social construction of risk. Our findings highlight the inherent fragmentation and the challenge of building collectiveness in risk construction, and the need for risk managers to consider the influence of broader social structures and the reshaping dynamism of sudden focusing events in managing complex IT projects