Information Systems Implementation and Structural Adaptation in Government-Business Inter-organization

The adaptation of inter-organizational structure occasioned by organizational and information technology agency in government-to-business (G2B) relations has been quite under-researched. Drawing upon structuration and transactions costs theories, this paper analyzes how and why IS implementation causes structural adaption. Based on analysis of a case of an inter-organizational implementation of a financial management information system, the paper argues that: legitimation structural adaptation is occasioned by the need to balance efficiency and effectiveness between governance and IT sourcing; domination structural adaptation is occasioned by the need to balance efficiency and effectiveness between governance and business IT capability; and signification structural adaptation is occasioned by the need to achieve cost efficiency of shared goals and by availability of IT to preserve what is achieved over the long term. It is argued that this implementation perspective on structural adaptation deepens our understanding of socio-technical shaping of structure. It also offers far-reaching benefits to structure conception and its organizational application than the previous ones.