Grand Successes and Failures in IT. Public and Private Sectors

The aim of this essay is to put forward a performative, sociomaterial perspective on Information Systems (IS) success and failure in organisations by focusing intently upon the discursive-material nature of IS development and use in practice. Through the application of Actor Network Theory (ANT) to the case of an IS that transacts insurance products we demonstrate the contribution of such a perspective to the understanding of how IS success and failure occur in practice. The manuscript puts our argument forward by first critiquing the existing perspectives on IS success and failure in the literature for their inadequate consideration of the materiality of IS, of its underling technologies and of the entanglement of the social and material aspects of IS development and use. From a sociomaterial perspective IS are not seen as objects that impact organisations one way or another, but instead as relational effects continually enacted in practice. As enactments in practice IS development and use produce realities of IS success and failure.

Disasters are emergent and dynamic scenarios involving diverse stakeholders in complex decision making and as such, disaster management systems must account for these conditions. In order to more effectively design, build and adopt these systems we suggest that emergency service agencies should consider supplementing their traditional “command and control” approaches and common operating pictures (CoP), with purposeful “collaborative” approaches. These would facilitate the generation of a dynamic operating picture (DoP), providing a range of systems options with which to better manage disasters. Collaborative management and negotiated integration of technology and information use as well as process development, represent a paradigmatic shift in our thinking about disaster management. We have utilized McCann’s (1983) Negotiated Arrangements Theory (NAT) to highlight issues and problems with traditional command and control approaches and CoP, during three disaster scenarios. As a result of lessons learned from this analysis we suggest that developing a supplementary “repertoires of collaboration” approach to the negotiation of DoP for disaster management, would have a positive impact on disaster management outcomes.

This paper takes a sociotechnical viewpoint of knowledge management system (KMS) implementation in organizations considering issues such as stakeholder disenfranchisement, lack of communication, and the low involvement of key personnel in system design asking whether KMS designers could learn from applying sociotechnical principles to their systems. The paper discusses design elements drawn from the sociotechnical principles essential for the success of IS and makes recommendations to increase the success of KMS in organizations. It also provides guidelines derived from Clegg’s Principles (2000) for KMS designers to enhance their designs. Our data comes from the application of a plurality of analysis methods on a large comprehensive global survey conducted from 2007 to 2011 of 1034 participants from 76 countries. The survey covers a variety of organizations of all types and sizes from a comprehensive selection of economic sectors and industries. Our results showed that users were not satisfied with the information and knowledge systems that they were being offered. In addition to multiple technology and usability issues, there were human and organisational barriers that prevented the systems from being used to their full potential. We recommend that users of KMS are integrated into the design team so that these usability and other barriers can be addressed during the feasibility stage as well as the actual design and implementation phases.

In this study we investigate a case of an outsourced information systems (IS) failure (OISF) within the collaborative partnership among asymmetric partners. A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is dealing with an independent software vendor (ISV) conducting a project of implementing an IS that fails. We used a narrative research methodology for our enquiry. In the construction of our narrative we followed the OISF framework as a theoretical touchstone. As a major conclusion we found that asymmetric collaborations with partners with inadequate managerial and technical IT capabilities are extremely prone to OISF’s. We showed that an outcome-based and fixed price contract is not an adequate instrument to conduct such a partnership and to avoid a failure.

The majority of the existing literature is based upon the assumption that, by paying attention to success factors, failure will be avoided. In the case of challenged projects, where failure factors are overcome the projects go on to be delivered successfully. Hence, it is worthwhile to explore the key factors that determine failure, since this information may be useful in averting future project failures. This research aims to collate and classify existing research in order to: (1) understand the common failure factors; and (2) categorise identified factors pertaining to country, project stage and failure categories. In so doing, this research work goes beyond the identification of traditional factors since it further classifies them according to project stages, failure types and geographical regions. This research contributes to knowledge by identifying and synthesising existing understanding of the failure of IS/IT projects.

Explaining success and failure of IT initiatives is a subject with long tradition in the information system field. However, users’ drivers and motivation of the adoption of voluntary open-ended technology has been understudied. It is not clear why users would choose to adopt a new voluntary technology and how and why its use options and possibility unfold. In this paper these questions are examined through the analysis of a longitudinal case study (1994-2012) of telemedicine adoption in a northern Swedish county. The findings reveal that it is not sufficient to make an open voluntary technology available for its users, or passively demand them to use the technology. Successful use would occur through a continuous interplay between users’ technology mental models and their organisational setting and work practices. When in contradiction with the latter, users would not consider the system and hence its use could fade away. Institutional entrepreneurs who have the ability to imagine new and different possibilities and encourage organisational members to experiment and explore possible use and benefit from the technology could influence the initial mental model.

Agriculture is an important economic activity and is a primary driver of economic growth of many developing countries. Improving the performance and profitability of agricultural markets will lead to the growth of the agricultural sector. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS) is a development initiative which promises to empower the stakeholders of the agricultural supply chain with information and aid the development of the agricultural sector. Many attempts have been made by governments in a number of developing countries to provide AMIS, with a poor success rate. It is important to understand the factors that determine the success or failure of these systems. In this paper we take the theoretical lens provided by Bartels’ theory of market separations in order to define the success of AMIS. Using a technical/rational view, we conduct a two level analysis of market separations – those in agricultural markets and those in AMIS services markets. We find that information separation is a strong feature that exists in agricultural markets and AMIS provide good means of reducing this separation. Success of AMIS is defined by the reduction of market separations at both these levels. Later we go beyond technical rationality and note that socio-political issues limit the utilization of market information provided by AMIS. Thus we state that socio-political separation of agricultural markets must also be tackled in order to successfully implement AMIS. A comprehensive policy environment in a region can help reduce these separations.

Transformational e-government (t-government) aims to realize public sector reform. Yet many of the large transformation projects have not resulted in the desired outcomes, as stakeholders did not adopt the results of the projects. These projects are characterized by a large number of stakeholders, many uncertainties and complexities. Although there is a vast amount of literature available on project failure and despite its importance of this topic, little is known about factors influencing the adoption of large transformation projects by stakeholders. In this paper factors influencing and delaying the adoption of a large transformation project are identified. Adoption is hindered by a combination of factors originating from the complexity and uncertainties in combination with too high ambition levels and the neglecting existing realities. During the transformation process the focus on the users was lost and shifted towards an internal orientation.

Environmental sustainability is one of the issues that organizations need to face today. Nevertheless, Green IT practices have their disadvantages, especially financial ones, which make the green logistic topic controversial to organizations. Achieving zero emissions while receiving financial benefits is idealistic thus companies need to adapt specific green strategies according to their particular needs. This study analyzes a specific company in terms of its green logistics strategy in order to discover any shortcomings and to depict how issues from literature review can influence the operation of the organization. This company is a super market chain dominant in the market of northern Greece. Focusing on the e-logistics of the firm, issues such as warehouse management system, inventory control, transportation, distribution and reverse logistics are examined in combination with the environmental consciousness. Our results could be useful to companies looking to exploit Green IT logistics.

Information systems projects in developing countries continue to fail. Our research aims to understand some of the major issues that negatively impact the success of public sector information systems projects in developing countries. For this, we conducted a qualitative study of a state agricultural marketing board in India. The board initiated an information systems project in 2003. The objective of the project was to connect the various agricultural markets spread across the state by deploying hi-tech information and communication technologies. Unfortunately, the project was abandoned because of the growing conflicts between the government and private vendors implementing the project. The major stakeholders in the project included the government, private vendors, farmers and traders. The data for this critical case study were collected over a period of eight months from 2009 to 2012 using semi structured interviews, field visits and observations. The findings suggest that the

lack of trust

and

resignation

(to certain unfair practices being virtually impossible to change) arethe core issues that impede success of information systems implementation in developing countries.

Bringing about innovative IT enabled change within organisations that have restricted funding and resources is a challenge currently facing hospitals in the UK National Health Service (NHS). This article explores an Action Research project which aimed to implement a Patient Flow Management System in an acute hospital in the North East of England. The project took place over a twelve month period and involved a number of stakeholders including nursing staff. The contribution of this paper is to recognise the importance of AR as an approach suitable for systems adoption and the need to ‘know your stakeholder’ and their culture especially when dealing with professional bodies.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been increasingly used in innovative applications around the world. It has caught attention of different industries and been mandated by resource dominant organizations and different countries in various applications. In Australia RFID is mandatory for cattle identification. The objective of this research is to investigate whether the mandatory pressure really makes the livestock farms to adopt RFID. This study took the broader aspect of external environment considering external pressure, external support, and external uncertainty. Applying a mixed method approach this is a prime initiative exploring and detailing the external environmental factors on RFID context. Following extensive literature on innovation and RFID adoption this paper, first, explores the relevant factors on miscellaneous innovations. The literature review was followed by a qualitative field study. The field study confirms and contextualizes the factors from the literature review. Finally, an empirical study investigates the adoption behavior of livestock farms in relation to RFID adoption in the context of Western Australia. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS)-based Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) tool. The analysis finds that market pressure, cognitive pressure, government support, and external uncertainty are the main driving factors in RFID adoption. Implications of the results are highlighted.

This study presents an investigation on the role of innovation attributes that significantly influence the behavioural intention and actual adoption of potential consumers towards the

interbank mobile payment service

. Using attributes from Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory, along with one other attribute, cost, the diffusion of this IMPS application has been studied. The proposed model was empirically tested against the data gathered from both, the adopters and non-adopters of this technology. The SPSS analysis tool was used to perform the reliability tests, and linear and logistic regressions. While relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and trialability displayed significant relationships, observability exhibited a poor impact on behavioural intention. On the other hand, behavioural intention and cost showed significant impacts on the adoption of the IMPS application. The theoretical background, discussions, key conclusions, and limitations, alongside research implications of this study have been presented.

What makes an e-commerce company successful? In 2011 24% of venture capital in the US went into Internet companies adding up to a total of $6.9 billion (PwC & NVCA, 2011). With such high stakes the question of e-commerce success is more topical than ever. Google, one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world, despite huge successful products like Google Search, has also seen failures. In this paper, we explore factors associated with successful and unsuccessful adoption of Google products using a literature study in conjunction with qualitative analysis of the Google Search, Google Health, and Google Plus products. Our research identifies key success factors for user adoption of Google products and predicts that Google Plus in its present form will lead to failure. The study shows that perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, information quality, balancing risks with trust, and finally social pressure are important success factors for Google. Despite limiting the examination to Google products, results can serve as a guideline for other e-commerce ventures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the success (by measuring intention to use and user satisfaction) of the online public grievance redressal system (OPGRS) from the perspective of the citizens of India. This is the first time that the success of this e-government system is examined using an IS success model. The model developed includes the constructs such as

system quality, information quality, perceived usefulness, user satisfaction

, and

intention to use

. The empirical outcomes provided the positive significant connections between all eight hypothesized relationships between five constructs. The empirical evidence and discussion presented in the study can help the Indian government to improve upon and fully utilize the potential of OPGRS as a useful tool for transparent and corruption free country.

Social media have diffused into the everyday lives of many but still pose challenges to individuals regarding use of these platforms. This paper explores the multiple manners in which social media platforms gets employed by individuals based on an examination of 4 vignettes generated by interviewing individuals within a university context. An analysis of the vignettes and individual use behaviors highlights the tension between network-based adoption of social media platforms and the constraints that the network places on individual use of the platform.

Agile methods continue their growth in popularity. This spreading usage increases the need for adapting agile approaches to specific organizations. Hence, we investigate how system developers engage in the evolution of both agile systems and agile methods in practice. We study adaptation of the agile method

Scrum

in six organizations. Based on this study we design a framework explaining how agile methods, and in particular Scrum, are constantly articulated and re-articulated when diffused in practice. This framework includes a two-by-two dimensional grouping that includes three classes of fragments: Objects, Organization, and Process. The fourth class involves a discursive articulation that occurs on the same logical plane as the fragments. Unlike method engineering, the discourse is an inseparable part of the methodology itself, not a separate “meta” method.

In 2010 the UK government responded to a catalogue of failing large-scale IT projects by cancelling most of them. In 2011 they announced the Universal Credit (UC) project, described as “the biggest single change to the system of benefits and tax credits since 1945, affecting some 6 million households and 19 million people”. UC will integrate a number of legacy databases with the Real Time Information (RTI) system, administered by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and due to complete by October 2013. The coupling of these two large-scale IT projects will affect millions of UK citizens; it is crucial that both complete successfully and on time. Government has responded to criticisms by stating that the use of Agile methods will solve the failures of the past. This paper critically assesses the adoption of Agile methods for software development, project management and procurement in the case of Universal Credit.

Cross-cultural offshoring in software development challenges effective knowledge sharing. While research has suggested temporarily co-locating participants to address this challenge, few studies are available on what knowledge sharing practices emerge over time when co-locating cross-cultural software developers. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of an offshoring project with co-location of Indian and Danish software developers for 10½ months. A community-of-practice (CoP) analysis is offered of what knowledge sharing practices emerge over time and how these where facilitated. The study supports previous studies’ suggestion of co-location in offshoring for helping cross-cultural knowledge sharing. However, the short initial period of co-location suggested in these studies, was insufficient for achieving knowledge sharing practices indicating a CoP. In conjunction with a longer period of co-location four facilitators of cross-cultural knowledge sharing were shared office, shared responsibility for tasks and problems, shared prioritization of team spirit, and a champion of social integration.

Software development organizations across the globe are concerned about the high rate of project failures. Two constructs which are hypothesized to have significant impact on project outcome are risk and risk management. Risk points to an aspect of a development task, process or environment which, if ignored, tends to adversely affect the project performance. Risk management is defined as the mechanism for identifying, addressing and eliminating software risk items before they become threats to project success. Based on the data collected from 527 software development projects in India, this research develops an integrated model linking these three constructs. Structural Equation Modeling was used to develop and validate the models. The models show how the impact of risk management on project outcome may be mediated by risk.

Legitimation is an important aspect of e-government initiatives due to the complex and diverse issues related to policy and technology implementation which create huge demands for resources. Legitimation is one of the core concepts of Institutional theory. Though institutional theory is gaining importance in IS and e-government research, there are very few studies on the strategies and process of legitimation in e-government implementations. In this paper we use institutional theory and examine the institutionalization of India’s Unique Identification (UID) project. Given the novelty and uniqueness of the UID initiative, we find that the predominant strategy used is that of conformance and proactive manipulation of the environment. The main contribution of the paper is in identifying that different strategies are used for supply side and demand side stakeholders of e-government projects.

Information Systems (IS) has become a research discipline accommodating and adapting diverse methodologies, methods, and techniques from reference disciplines as well as generating them. Action Design Research (ADR) has been developed as a broad research method, based on empirical study within developed countries. However, there remains a lack of methodologies for studying IS in the complex context of developing counties. This pioneering application of ADR in a developing country context identified that ADR requires additional lenses for understanding this additional complexity. Further, combining ADR with an ethnographic methodological framework has potential complementarity within IS research. This helps the researchers cycle through the problem formulation, design, evaluation, reflection and learning cycles. This paper therefore argues that Action Design Ethnographic Research (ADER) is a potential methodological framework for IS research. While developed from a specific case of land records service in Bangladesh, ADER shows potential as a rigorous methodology for conducting IS research in any complex context.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have proven their value in delivering time-sensitive and relevant information to targeted communities. Information has been the key resource to social development. Social entrepreneurs have leveraged ICT to reach out to people who are marginalized from public discourse. Despite successes however, some ICT initiatives have failed due to underestimating the social requirements of technology and to relying more on information systems than on the information the system transports. How information is produced and applied to a social context to create meaning is more important than the means by which it is represented through portable monitors and mobile devices. The paper argues in order to take advantage of today’s ICT, it is critical that we understand how technology and society mediate within a socio-technical framework. Using the Actor Network Theory, the paper explains the process of mediation to highlight that the journey to technology-based solutions is not smooth. The Village Knowledge Center (VKC) project in India and the Access to Information (A2I) project in Bangladesh provide sound evidence of how ICT-led social development can be effective in the short run but meaningful long term changes will depend on the collaboration of social entrepreneurs and public administrators.

In this paper, we describe the diffusion of personalized services among municipalities in the Netherlands over the period 2006-2010 and investigate how and why various municipalities adopted personalized electronic services. Using qualitative data gathered in fifty interviews in ten selected Dutch municipalities, we synthesize the findings in an explanatory model of personalized electronic service delivery diffusion. The model shows how persuasive pressure (as perceived by adopters) is followed-up by organizational search activities, and how, in various circumstances, the idea of personalized services is ‘framed’ by innovation champions, knowledge brokers and new members of staff as to appeal to specific organizational priorities and ambitions. In doing so, this article contributes to an institutional view on adoption and diffusion of innovations, in which (1) horizontal and vertical channels of persuasion and (2) human agency, rather than technological opportunity and rational cost-benefit considerations, account for actual diffusion of innovations.

Information is considered as a prerequisite for development in today’s world. This belief has led to several measures to make information freely available to the citizens. Use of ICTs for development is a step in that direction, as they are expected to make communication more democratic and easy, leading to developmental outcomes. It is estimated that 60% of all ICT projects in Asia are located in India. Many players - national and state governments, private business organizations and civil society groups are engaged in their implementation. Despite huge investments, studies indicate that the developmental use of such projects is very low. ICTs for development projects have been studied using diverse tools and theories. Failure has been attributed to several factors including various types of barriers, faulty institutions, and technology related issues. This paper places analysis on ICTD projects within the context of CPR (Common Pool Resources) studies. In recent years, the definition of CPR has been expanded to include information as “new commons” and robust institutions are deemed essential for survival of all CPRs. In this paper, ICT based development projects have been interpreted as CPR institutions and CPR design principles have been used to explain the functioning of two ICTD projects. Both these studies were carried out in the state of Uttarakahnd, India and analysis is confined to use of agricultural information by the farming community.

Utilizing the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) theory and the literature on citizen engagement (or participation), we formulated a multiple-mediation model, examining (1) the contextual antecedents of e-participation and e-government maturity; and (2) the mediating role of e-participation (in form of e-information sharing, e-consultation, and e-decision-making) on the relationships between the TOE contextual factors and e-government maturity. Based on archival data from 187 countries, our results showed that ICT infrastructure, human capital and e-participation had a direct relationship with e-government maturity. Of the three dimensions of e-participation, e-information sharing and e-decision-making were positively associated with e-government maturity, and e-consultation was negatively related. Further, all three dimensions of e-participation partially mediated the influence of ICT infrastructure and human capital on e-government maturity. Results also indicated that governance in a country did not significantly contribute to its e-government maturity, and their relationship was not mediated by e-participation. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on e-government by identifying the contextual factors affecting e-government maturity, and provide indications to practice on enhancing government’s willingness in implementing relevant e-participation initiatives.

This paper proposes the use of high definition video to video as a means to facilitate the adoption of public services. High definition video can be delivered over the public Internet infrastructure by using a Right of Way platform that guarantees no interference from unwanted traffic. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of using high definition video to video communication in the public sector to facilitate services such as health, education and city experience/administration. Drawing from the dominant theories on Information Communication Technology we then propose a framework of reference to evaluate user experience of such services based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012), the Information Systems success model (DeLone & McLean, 1992) and inclusion of the perception on information privacy.

Integrating research, education and evidence-based medical practice requires complex network linkages among these critical activities. This study examines the Cuban National Health Care Network and Portal (INFOMED) in the context of the regional Virtual Health Library of the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences System (BIREME) led by Brazil. INFOMED is a virtual infrastructure for integration of scientific research with education and expert intervention in evidence-based medicine. Virtual infrastructures refer to an environment characterized by overlapping distribution networks accessible through Internet portals and websites designed to facilitate integrated use of available resources. The objective of this paper is to examine system design at the regional and national levels of analysis using theoretical perspectives from complexity theory, institutional economics and knowledge ecology. In conclusion model transferability to other national health care systems is considered.

Information systems development (ISD) and innovation is a complex and challenging endeavor. In this paper we inquire into the process of ISD and innovation to shed light on the ambiguous nature of such processes. This was done in an interpretive study of 10 governmental ISD projects where 14 interviews with key persons were conducted. In addition 11 interviews with senior IT consultants were conducted. Based on this study we propose an analytical lens to understand ISD and innovation. This lens is based on a metaphor grounded in the empirical material. This metaphor,

fragmentation

, mediates a deeper understanding of ISD and innovation regarding three aspects of complexity: knowledge, culture and discourse, and time and space.

Organizations have been confronted with fast moving developments in the Information Technology (IT) sector over the past decades. Many new technological paradigms have emerged and left a landscape of legacy in which more and more money is spent on maintaining this landscape at the expense of innovating. Especially where business requirements put time pressure on the evolution of the IT landscape the decision whether to continue and maintain legacy systems or to decommission legacy systems in time has become a huge challenge. We formulate a set of propositions influencing the decision to decommission or continue legacy systems. This set of propositions is derived from literature and interviews with high level managers of organizations. Software characteristics, development methods, dependency of systems, lock-in, system complexity, new technologies and system ownership influence the decision whether to decommission or to maintain a system. We conclude this paper by proposing a methodology that helps organizations in finding the right balance between discontinuing and maintaining legacy systems.

Many different methods have been used to understand the field of information systems, including classification, citation, and exploration of genres and lines of discourse. This paper discusses an approach based on the concept of a

family of fields,

where IS has greater proximity to some fields than to others.Our approach was inspired by field theory and discourse communities as a means to explain the diffusion of scientific research. The family of fields concept proved not to be viable but yielded important lessons for the study of IS and its relationship with other scientific fields. We found that (1) fields are not so easily defined, (2) borrowing of ideas across disciplines is not linear, (3) the concept of a reference discipline is obscured, and (4) we need to ask, what are the requirements for a discipline among the social sciences.

Despite an abundance of literature about knowledge and outsourcing the theoretical concepts and research findings are not immediately applicable in practice. In this paper we present the

insights

and the

effort

used to find a way to support knowledge transfer in outsourcing. More specifically, we aim to support operational managers responsible for outsourced IT activities in carrying out the concrete task of knowledge transfer planning and execution. We report from a longitudinal project conducted in a major financial company headquartered in Denmark and an offshore development center located in India. We identify the three main knowledge transfer challenges experienced by the case company. The identified challenges inform the design of a systematic five-step approach to the company’s knowledge transfer. Our main contribution is to illustrate how extant research can be applied to understand and solve a particular company’s knowledge transfer challenges in a way that fits with the company culture.

Empirically or experimental, in every research, methodology (method, approach and technique) are employed. The methodology guides the study from the beginning to the end. What is even more important is how the researcher views and deduces the outcome through his or her analytical lens. Information systems studies are increasingly challenging, primarily because of human interactions with computing. This is mainly due to the fact that human beings are unpredictable, which has impact and influence on how systems are developed, implemented and used.

In the last two decades, researchers of information systems (IS) have begun to employ socio-technical theories (lenses) in their studies. This includes younger and aspiring researchers who strive to understand the importance, as well as the application of the lenses in information systems studies. Selecting appropriate theory to underpin a study is therefore critical, primarily because it shapes and defines the results.

In this article, the factors which influence and determine the selection of theories in IS studies are examined. The aim was not to compare theories that are used to underpin IS studies, rather to understand how the socio-technical theories could provide a systematic method for data analysis in the field. The article also highlights some underpinning theories used in IS studies and their usefulness to researchers seeking to identify a theoretical basis for their arguments.

The study analyzes the contextual factors impacting technology assimilation in an environment that is characterized by macro-economic changes, rapid technological innovations, emerging industry practices and shifting organizational contexts. Stones’ strong structuration theory (SST), a refinement of Giddens’ structuration theory, is used as the theoretical lens for studying the technology assimilation process. SST is used to analyze the structuration process at the micro-level and its impact on the structures at the meso/macro-level. In addition, actor network theory (ANT) is used to analyze the role of heterogeneous actors in altering the structures as the actor network adapts to the technological innovations and changing contexts.

This article concerns with human-computer-interaction (HCI) from a neuroscientific perspective. The motivation for this perspective is the demographic transition, which shifts population structures of industrial nations. The authors will explain consequences of the demographic transition in terms of HCI and establish a hypothesis for these research activities. To evaluate this hypothesis the authors develop an approach, which combines different disciplines. This approach examines the effects of IT-accessibility on human cognitive processing. Therefore, required methodologies and instruments will be explained, discussed and selected. Possible effects of IT-accessibility on human cognitive processing will be illustrated with an acknowledged cognition model. The result of this article will be a concept, which enables the measurement of IT-accessibility impacts on human cognitive processing.

The Platonic quest for universal principles dominates the mainstream of IS research, typically relegating individual differences to the error term as pet theories and derived hypotheses are put to the statistical test. In design science, this neglect of “particulars” is especially egregious as it wastes valuable information about individuals and their interactions with technology. I present a case study of the design of adaptive automation, which shows how critical such information can be when designing complex IT-based systems. The obsession with theory has gone too far, I conclude; it is time to fight back against the tyranny of universals.

Is a focus on information systems or information technology success a myopic view of evaluating IT success and failure? Are success and failure the opposite ends of a continuum for evaluating IT projects? Conventional measures of success such as meeting cost, time, budgets, and user needs do not address positives that can emerge from failures. We contend that a focus on success and failing to factor the possibility of failure actually hamper IT projects. An organizational mandate that does not allow for failure does not promote risk taking and innovation. It can also foster a project climate fraught with undesirable or unethical behavior and stress among developers, while failing to capture positive lessons that could emerge from IT project failure.

According to knowledge based view, firm-specific knowledge is considered to be a foundational source of competitive advantage. However, the recent trend towards social software radically changes the very essence, role, and value of firm-specific knowledge in driving competitive advantage. On one hand, firms are very enthusiastic about the investments in the social software initiatives; on the other hand, the broader strategic impact of these initiatives is not clear yet. This position paper highlights deep-seated problems in applying prominent strategic management theories in the context of social software. To address these problems, drawing on literature on value co-creation and service logic, it describes four ways social software can enable a firm’s competitive advantage, and call for more research in this area.

Collaboration now plays an important role in many organizations. Many organizations often see collaboration as a given and provide a myriad of communication tools ranging from e-mail through workspaces to video conferencing. Assumptions are then made that these tools will be used in a productive manner. However, there are now many example of where goals are not achieved through ad-hoc use of technologies as collaboration is often not aligned to business practice, especially to changing business practices. This paper calls for an approach to align technology use to the enterprise practices.

The paper models enterprises as a system of systems where systems are closely integrated through collaborative spaces. These spaces change during system change. The paper provides a set of concepts to describe a system of system and shows how this can be used to align collaboration to the emerging business relationships. The proposed concepts, in contrast to existing methods, place greater emphasis on social structures. They support the idea of a collaborative architecture, which defines the alignment of social collaborative arrangements to business activities through the creation or rearrangement of collaborative spaces. The goal is to get away from traditional approaches in choosing the best pattern based on history, but to encourage design thinking through experimentation at the business structure level. The paper then describes the kinds of tools needed to support modelling based on these concepts.

This paper describes a successful intervention to facilitate the adoption of e-government in a least developed country. The action design research project adopted an unusual approach to facilitating e-government based on earlier grounded research that identified particular underlying inhibitors to adoption. In this case, the need to increase the knowledge of the Bangladeshi public servants to the potential and approaches of e-government was a higher priority than attempting any specific e-government project implementation. A formal education program has been established that is available to all Bangladeshi public servants through institutional training. The project’s approach and the lessons learned in its delivery provide a useful framework for other e-government interventions in least developed countries.

The main components of information systems include people, process and technology infrastructure. In many studies, these components are often viewed and examined from socio-technical perspectives. This is primarily because of the criticality of human actions. The complexities and the difference which humans bring in the development and implementation of information systems are not getting easier. Hence the increase studies in the field of information systems.

Many approaches such as using the lens of Actor Network Theory (ANT) has been explored to understand the socio-technical factors in the information systems. Although ANT has been employed in many studies, it is of significant important to establishes and clarifies the factors, from the social perspective, which influences the development and implementation of information systems in organisations.

This paper aims to describe the changing innovation strategies of Indian IT industry firms. Indian firms are responding to global technological discontinuities proactively and faster, compared to the past. Innovations continue to be process driven, however, there is significant focus on non-linear, products & platforms-led growth strategies. There has been an upward shift in R&D/IP emphasis, as empirical data suggests, and emphasis on collaborative innovation. Firms are willing to make riskier investments compared to past. The paper also discusses some of the challenges the players face, as they build the next generation innovations and offerings. Nature of emerging technologies provides further scope for firms to come up with innovative products, services and solutions. Key conclusion is that the innovation strategy of Indian IT industry has changed from ‘reactive’ to ‘active’.

This short position paper promotes the need for more evidence based practice to underpin the successful execution of information systems (IS) projects. This research responds to the high numbers of IS projects that are seen to have failed in terms of either one or many success criteria such as: not meeting original objectives, running over budget, negatively impacting on people, processes or organizations, to name but a few. We advocate the need for the development of a more rigorous evidence base for IS research similar to those used in medicine or more recently in social studies and software engineering. For example, Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) and also Meta-Analysis of empirical research studies could be used more extensively within IS to compile more coherent, consistent and referable bodies of evidence and knowledge. We conclude with a 7 point action plan and suggestions for further research.

Implementation of Information Systems in Public Healthcare in India has been a very complex undertaking. Participation of the end-users during design and implementation is important. Participation within bureaucratic settings poses unique challenges, due to hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian and formalistic practices. Even where State agencies have experimented to bring in imaginative changes, participation have not been voluntary, but have been enforced. This short paper attempts to analyse less know and less understood aspect of participatory approach entangled within bureaucratic systems. This paper attempts to analyse the issues around participation in order to identify two key areas: [1] How to encourage public sector employees to participate during design, development and implementation of IS? [2] How can public sector institutions encourage effective participation? Discourses on Participatory Approach is drawn upon to analyse the case of Health Information Systems Programme.

Extant Research on e-government projects has shown that multiple stakeholders are at play always, each with their own divergent interests. And many a time, differences in stakeholder expectations from a project has resulted in projects failing or being abandoned after initial usage. Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) studies look at the development history of a technology in order to understand how that particular technology has evolved, based on the interpretations of various stakeholders involved. This short paper looks at the Aadhaar project (Unique Identification Project) of India through a constructivist lens and tries to present the current understanding of the Aadhaar project, as seen by the various stakeholders, using publicly available data.

This extended abstract presents a review of various constructs and evaluation frameworks proposed in the literature for e-Retailers. Our study shows that the existing frameworks apply to either the technical or the non-technical elements of an e-Retailing site and not

both

of them. Therefore, a comprehensive framework covering all aspects of quality is what is required. Furthermore, for the long run sustenance and growth of e-Retailing, it is necessary to focus on the service provided and not only the technical aspects. In the Indian context, where e-Retailing is beginning to enter a rapid growth phase, evaluation methods and metrics which are appropriate are necessary. Our extended abstract highlights the key issues that will help define these constructs.

Governments are initiating open data initiatives as a new approach where external stakeholders can play an increased role in the innovation of government services. This is unlike previous approaches of e-government service innovation where services are solely initiated and developed by the agencies themselves. However, despite public agencies actively promoting the use of their data by organizing events such as challenge competitions, the response from external stakeholders to leverage government data for innovative activities has been lacking. This raises the question about the reasons inhibiting the interest to innovate using open data. Yet, the existing literature points to a lack of understanding about external stakeholders’ willingness to innovate with the data provided. Motivated thus, this paper aims to identify the antecedents of the willingness of external stakeholders to innovate with open data. We propose the use of the case study methodology for this purpose.

To meet the need of digital inclusion and to mitigate the digital divide between disable and general people different ICT interventions are implemented in different developing and developed countries. But question arises to what extent these interventions are successful? Are these interventions are successful for creating new hope and confidence among disabled people? In this working paper we have tried to find the impact of these interventions from actual beneficiary perspectives. We have adopted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to know about perceived usefulness and perceived easiness from the disabled/visually impaired person’s perspective. We found that though Technology has provided initial access to technology and information but the users are facing many challenges to overcome language barriers. Our ongoing study also reveals that social issues/variables are also important for getting acceptance of ICT interventions for disabled people.

In recent years, growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web has had an impact on the way local, state, and national governments work. In this research, we examine the factors that influence adoption of Internet technology in a government organization in India using an integrated model, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis, 2003). This research examines organizational culture as an important antecedent to the UTAUT to evaluate user acceptance of Internet technology in a governmental organization.

Complex information systems may be viewed as systems that cut across functional boundaries within an organization and even organizational boundaries. These include enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, supply chain management (SCM) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, product lifecycle management (PLM) systems and business-to-business (B2B) systems. Such systems pose significant knowledge barriers for assimilation, require coordination with internal and external actors, and entail reengineering of both cross-functional and inter-organizational business processes. Moreover, organizations progress through various stages of assimilation such as initiation, experimentation, implementation, and routinization in assimilating complex systems.

An often-overlooked consideration when dealing with such systems is that organizations may not completely assimilate them and even abandon them midway through the assimilation process. Such stories are well-documented in the popular press (e.g., failed projects, cancelled contracts) but generally do not provide insightful explanations of the accompanying assimilation process. However, there is not much evidence in prior empirical literature as to how assimilation processes came together in real-world organizations or the differences in the assimilation processes between organizations that succeeded or failed when dealing with complex information systems.

Conceptualizing assimilation as a process by which organizations move from the initiation through the routinization stages, this research strives to uncover

facilitators

that enable an organization to move to the next stage and

inhibitors

that may force organizations to stay in the current stage or completely abandon the assimilation process. Employing a multiple case-study approach involving both successful and failed projects of different complex systems with data provided by key informants, this research aims to uncover usable knowledge for researchers and practitioners.

Based on the principles of ‘rule of law’ this research-in-progress paper theorizes the key role of internal governance procedures within virtual worlds for promoting digital entrepreneurship. By fostering adequate trust, internal governance procedures within VWs, provide the requisite amount of certainty, transparency, predictability and legitimacy to the transactions carried out within the VWs. In summary, this research proposes a plausible framework for conceptualizing the adoption and diffusion of VWs as a platform for digital entrepreneurship.