Showing papers in "Journal of Information Technology in 2006"

A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research

Abstract: We present a review and analysis of the rich body of research on the adoption and diffusion of IT-based innovations by individuals and organizations. Our review analyzes 48 empirical studies on individual and 51 studies on organizational IT adoption published between 1992 and 2003. In total, the sample contains 135 independent variables, eight dependent variables, and 505 relationships between independent and dependent variables. Furthermore, our sample includes both quantitative and qualitative studies. We were able to include qualitative studies because of a unique coding scheme, which can easily be replicated in other reviews. We use this sample to assess predictors, linkages, and biases in individual and organizational IT adoption research. The best predictors of individual IT adoption include Perceived Usefulness, Top Management Support, Computer Experience, Behavioral Intention, and User Support. The best predictors of IT adoption by organizations were Top Management Support, External Pressure, Professionalism of the IS Unit, and External Information Sources. At the level of independent variables, Top Management Support stands as the main linkage between individual and organizational IT adoption. But at an aggregate level, two collections of independent variables were good predictors of both individual and organizational IT adoption. These were innovation characteristics and organizational characteristics. Thus, we can consistently say that generic characteristics of the innovation and characteristics of the organization are strong predictors of IT adoption by both individuals and organizations. Based on an assessment of the predictors, linkages, and known biases, we prescribe 10 areas for further exploration.

IT to support knowledge sharing in communities, towards a social capital analysis

Abstract: Ignoring the informal, non-canonical nature of knowledge sharing, including people's motivation, ability and opportunity to share knowledge, is one of the key causes of resistance to use knowledge-sharing tools. In order to improve knowledge sharing supported by information technology (IT), tools need to be embedded in the social networks of which it is part. This has implications for our knowledge on the design requirements of such socially embedded IT. The paper reviews tools that are designed for the purpose to foster social capital. We will then discuss what is needed for an IS design theory related to knowledge communities and how such a theory could incorporate social capital theory.

Using coevolutionary and complexity theories to improve IS alignment: a multi-level approach

Abstract: The misalignment of information systems (IS) components with the rest of an organization remains a critical and chronic unsolved problem in today's complex and turbulent world. This paper argues that the coevolutionary and emergent nature of alignment has rarely been taken into consideration in IS research and that this is the reason behind why IS alignment is so difficult. A view of IS alignment is presented about organizations that draws and builds on complexity theory and especially its focus on coevolution-based self-organized emergent behaviour and structure, which provides important insights for dealing with the emergent nature of IS alignment. This view considers Business/IS alignment as a series of adjustments at three levels of analysis: individual, operational, and strategic, and suggests several enabling conditions – principles of adaptation and scale-free dynamics – aimed at speeding up the adaptive coevolutionary dynamics among the three levels.

The mind or the heart? it depends on the (definition of) situation

Abstract: These days the adjective ‘situated’, the noun ‘situation’, the Latin expression ‘in situ’, and the abstract concept of ‘situatedness’, are liberally employed by those researchers and scholars who want to take and articulate alternative approaches to the study of organizations, the analysis of knowledge and change, the design of sophisticated technical systems, and in general the understanding of the complex interactions between people and technologies. These alternative perspectives have been developed and deployed against the positivist paradigm in social and organizational inquiry (Burrell and Morgan, 1979) and the normative discourse in organization science aimed at finding law-like relationships among organizational facts, events and behaviours (Deetz, 1996). They support especially the interpretivist paradigm, but are also employed in other radical or critical discourses.

Emergent States in Virtual Teams: A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective:

Abstract: Research on virtual teams (VTs) has proliferated in the last decades. However, few clear and consistent theoretical attempts to integrate the literature on VTs in a systemic way have emerged. This paper uses the complex adaptive systems (CAS) perspective to integrate the literature on emergent states in VTs. According to this general framework, VT effectiveness depends on the interaction between three levels of dynamics: local, global and contextual. Team cognition, trust, cohesion and conflict are described as states that emerge from the interactions among the VT members and as parts of global dynamics, they impact on VT effectiveness, and in the same time they are influenced by the outcomes of the VT. The insights on this bidirectional causality as well as other benefits of using the CAS framework to improve our understanding of VTs are discussed in the paper. It also provides an overview of artificial simulation models as well as simulation results concerning the emergence of the four states described in the CAS framework and discusses several ways to improve the accuracy of the simulation models using empirical data collected in real VTs.

Transaction Costs and Information Systems: Does IT Add Up?

Abstract: Transaction cost theory has often been used to support the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to reduce imperfection in the economic system. Electronic markets and hierarchies have repeatedly been described as solutions to inefficiencies in the organisation of transactions in complex and uncertain settings. Far from criticising this assumption, this paper highlights the limits associated with this application of transaction cost theory that has been prevalent in IS research. Building on the concepts first proposed by Ciborra, the paper argues that information-related problems represent only some of the elements contributing to transaction costs. These costs also emerge due to the interdependencies among the various factors contributing to their growth. The study of the consequences associated with ICT design and implementation, grounded in transaction cost theory, should consider the overall implication associated with the adoption and use of ICT and not only the direct effect on problems associated with information flow, distribution, and management.

Complexity and Information Systems: the emergent domain

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the emergence of the information systems (IS) domain as a central feature of the management research landscape in the networked world. It shows that emergence of the network economy and network society necessitates a paradigm shift in the IS discipline, and that complexity science offers the apposite concepts and tools for effecting such a shift. To avoid confusion of fundamental complexity science concepts with the more colloquial uses of complexity terminology, the paper provides an introduction to concepts from complexity science for those in the IS field who are unacquainted with complexity theory. It then proceeds to explore the utility of these concepts for developing IS theory and practice for the emergent networked world.

Using Complexity Science to effect a paradigm shift in Information Systems for the 21st century

Abstract: T homas Kuhn (1962) is famous for his descriptions of science as consisting of long periods of ‘normal puzzle solving’ separated by brief periods of ‘paradigm shift’. Computers have been around for half a century, with Information Systems (IS) in firms existing for several decades. Increasingly, we see various observers complaining about normal puzzle solving in IS (Ciborra, 1994; Orlikowski and Iacono, 2001) at a time when people increasingly spend time in virtual worlds – business people work more and more in virtual teams (VTs), while there are now special programs to rescue teenagers from total emersion in virtual worlds. In the tradition of exploratory learning, this Special Issue is intended to act as a catalyst to stimulate discussion and debate among those who see the need for a paradigm shift in the IS community. To this end, we explore the contribution that complexity science can make to fostering such a shift in the IS discipline and its re-positioning in the management field. The motivation for this Special Issue comes from our observation that the IS and the information technology (IT) landscape is characterized by network dominance and increasing complexity, coupled with the possibility that this heralds a paradigm shift for IS research and practice. For those who are championing the paradigm shift, we think complexity science applications to IS, such as those presented in this Special Issue, offer hope. The network motif is a recursive one. First, the potency of discrete advances in hardware and software capabilities to generate significant change in business and society is realized through the mobilization of network effects. Second, technological advances escalate the potency of network effects by continually enhancing the connectivity and bandwidth of networks. Third, the growth of ITenabled socio-economic networks is accompanied by globalization and an increase in the number and heterogeneity of players who can affect the dynamics of networks. Recent work elucidating the relationship between network topologies and network dynamics illustrates that the low cost of connectivity supported by the internet means that emergent new network order is cheap. ‘Almost free’ network changes can bring about transformational changes in the state of the world. (Barabási, 2002; Newman et al., 2006). The net effect of this is a perception that individuals and organizations have to deal with a world that is increasingly dynamical, complex and uncertain, and that their actions may have unintended consequences that impact on other parts of the world. This is reflected in the management literature where there has been a discernible shift from focusing solely on the firm as a unit of organization to focusing on networks of firms, from considerations of industry-specific value systems to considerations of networks of value systems, and from the concept of discrete industry structures to the concept of ecologies. The fact that the terms ‘network economy’ and ‘network society’ (Castells, 1996) have become integrated into the management lexicon highlights the extent to which networking developments in the IS domain are implicated in the development of the wider management arena. In particular, this shows up in the literature on competitive dynamics where the network economy is characterized by competition in high-velocity environments, speed of technological change and uncertainty (Eisenhardt, 1990, Li and Atuahene-Gima, 2002). Organizations, needing to shape and redefine their own competitive arena (Hayton, 2005), are confronted with the need to continually innovate (Tushman and O’Reilly, 1996; Autio et al., 2000, Hayton 2005). This brings with it the challenges of working towards radical and incremental innovation, (Nambisan, 2002) while dealing with resource constraints (Barney, 1991; McDougall et al. 1994; Stevenson, 1999) to achieve an efficacious balance of risk and return. The quest for coherent integration of social, economic, and IT networks has resulted in the convergence of strategy, OD and IS research on issues of information and informating, connectivity, coordination, competition, collaboration, learning and transformation at multiple levels of analysis in the networked world. These developments highlight the importance of trans-disciplinary Journal of Information Technology (2006) 21, 211–215 & 2006 JIT Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. All rights reserved 0268-3962/06 $30.00

The validity of the improvisation argument in the implementation of rigid technology: the case of ERP systems

Abstract: Claudio Ciborra’s improvisation argument provides a realistic dynamic account of how organisational practices address technology. This was developed from the study of malleable open-ended technology, but little research has occurred to investigate the theory’s validity within different settings. This paper seeks to address this gap, by examining improvisation in the context of a rigid highly structured technology. It presents findings from the successful implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system within a large international organisation, which was subsequently defined by the ERP vendor as being an ‘exemplary site’. Through the theoretical lens of Actor Network Theory, the paper reveals the improvisation, enactments and constant work around the plan that took place in dealing with the high contingencies of ERP implementation. The study extends the discussion on improvisation and contributes to an already illuminating argument. It invites practitioners to reflect on ERP implementation practice and review their evaluation methods.

From Business Process Management to Business Process Ecosystem

Abstract: New technologies, notably service-oriented architectures and Web services, are enabling a third wave of business process management (BPM). Supporters claim that BPM is informed by complexity theory and that business processes can evolve and adapt to changing business circumstances. It is suggested by BPM adherents that the business/IT divide will be obliterated through a process-centric approach to systems development. The evolution of BPM and its associated technologies are explored and then coevolutionary theory is used to understand the business/IT relationship. Specifically, Kauffman's NKC model is applied to a business process ecosystem to bring out the implications of coevolution for the theory and practice of BPM and for the relationship between business and IT. The paper argues that a wider view of the business process ecosystem is needed to take account of the social perspective as well as the human/non-human dimension.

A co-evolutionary complex systems perspective on information systems

Abstract: The co-evolution of information systems (IS) and the processes that underpin the construction and development of IT systems are explained from a complex systems perspective. Evolution operates at the microscopic level; in organizations, this is the individual or agent. Each agent has an idiosyncratic view of the organization, using to some extent personal constructs in dealing with the reality of organizational life. These objects or constructs can be described and measured by most agents; they are well defined. Many of these objects are represented in electronic, IT systems. Each agent also has their own view as to how they know what they know, that is, their epistemology, which we argue is their IS, and is wider than the IT systems they use. The IS of each agent co-evolves, by interaction with other agents, based on the agent's view of reality. The interaction of all agents constitutes the organization. Even more importantly, different values and interests motivate each agent. This is their axiology and it is what motivates them to learn and to develop their IS. An agent-based axiological framework is essential to understanding the evolution of organizations. It is the interaction of agents that builds consensus as to the shared reality of the organization, and this affects each agent's ability and motivation to evolve IS further. In addition, we propose that it is time that IT systems included modelling capabilities, based on multi-agent representations of the organization and its context, to explore and support strategic thinking and decision making.

Applying multiple perspectives to the BPO decision: a case study of call centres in Australia

Abstract: Information technology-enabled business process outsourcing (BPO) is a growing phenomenon; yet, little research has been conducted to understand the factors that determine its appropriateness for organisations and what capabilities they should seek in potential suppliers. A multi-perspective approach to the BPO decision, encompassing the transaction, the organisation and its context, is proposed and a set of supplier capabilities to deliver upon it is outlined. A case study of outsourced call centres in Australia, based upon interviews with three suppliers and three clients, suggests such a multi-perspective approach is useful but that the interaction between the factors shaping the BPO decision is more complex than envisaged. The case also suggests that a common set of capabilities is sought from suppliers – though it is narrower than first proposed.

An agent-based model of the impact of computer-mediated communication on organizational culture and performance: an example of the application of complex systems analysis tools to the study of CIS

Abstract: Organizations that make use of computer information systems (CIS) are prototypical complex adaptive systems (CAS). This paper shows how an approach from Complexity Science, exploratory agent-based modeling (ABM), can be used to study the impact of two different modes of use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on organizational culture (OC) and performance. The ABM includes stylized representations of (a) agents communicating with other agents to complete tasks; (b) an OC consisting of the distribution of agent traits, changing as agents communicate; (c) the effect of OC on communication effectiveness (CE), and (d) the effect of CE on task completion times, that is, performance. If CMC is used in a broad mode, that is, to contact and collaborate with many, new agents, the development of a strong OC is slowed, leading to decreased CE and poorer performance early on. If CMC is used in a local mode, repeatedly contacting the same agents, a strong OC develops rapidly, leading to increased CE and high performance early on. However, if CMC is used in a broad mode over longer time periods, a strong OC can develop over a wider set of agents, leading to an OC that is stronger than an OC which develops with local CMC use. Thus broad use of CMC results in overall CE and performance that is higher than is generated by local use of CMC. We also discuss how the dynamics generated by an ABM can lead to a deeper understanding of the behavior of a CAS, for example, allowing us to better design empirical longitudinal studies.

Control devolution as information infrastructure design strategy : A case study of a content service platform for mobile phones in Norway

Abstract: This paper depicts the results of an empirical case study on how two Norwegian telecommunications operators developed a business sector information infrastructure for the provision of mobile content services. Focusing on the context of this technology's development, and the strategic issues behind its design, implementation and operation, control devolution as a design strategy is explored. This analysis draws on insights presented by Claudio Ciborra's in his study of the change from alignment to loose coupling in the Swiss multinational Hoffmann-La Roche. This paper illustrates how control is played out on different levels, and balanced against autonomy. The theoretical implications of this paper highlight how the differences and transformations between information systems and information infrastructures are conceptualised, with the development of the latter better understood in light of a balance between control and autonomy. Consequently, it is suggested that control devolution as a design approach should be based on a deep understanding of the existing control/autonomy balance as well as the distribution of resources, risks and the ability and willingness to innovate.

The Hospitality Metaphor as a theoretical lens for understanding the ICT adoption process

Abstract: The Hospitality Metaphor proposed by Ciborra represents an alternative view to the traditional models that describe the process of adopting information and communication technologies (ICT).

Socio-instrumental usability: IT is all about social action

Abstract: Usability is an important concept that seems to receive less attention than it deserves outside of the core Human–Computer Interaction community. The reason for this apparent lack of interest may stem from an overly instrumental orientation towards usability that does not appeal to more socially oriented researchers. Three central criteria for usability, as reflected in the contemporary literature, are the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which users can achieve specified goals. These criteria are often expressed in terms of achieving goals, which, at least tacitly, seem to be restricted to goals related to an instrumental view on the use of IT. To broaden this view, the paper elaborates on how the concept of usability can be understood and used within a social action context. How social goals are related to the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction criteria is addressed specifically. It is argued that in order truly to understand usability, we must consider both instrumental and social goals since their combination constitute a fundamental part of the social action context in which systems are used. Both instrumental and social goals affect the way systems and use-situations are designed and conceived. Interpreting usability from this broad social action perspective may be a way to make the concept more accepted throughout the wide variety of areas dealing with the design of IT systems.

Hospitality, Improvisation and Gestell: A Phenomenology of Mobile Information

Abstract: This paper reports on longitudinal research into the implementation and use of the first mobile vehicle mounted data system (VMDS) at a UK fire service. Using insights from Claudio Ciborra's work, the paper develops a phenomenological ontology for conceptualising the co-constitutive relation between organisational practices and information technology mediated practices. The paper sets out how the brigade's mobile data system can be understood in terms hospitality, improvisation and Gestell. It is argued that despite the seemingly innocent and potentially mundane replacement of paper-based practices by electronically mediated mobile information and communication, the VMDS is associated with significant and far-reaching outcomes, both empirical and ontological, within the brigade and for the modernisation of fire service provision across the UK. We suggest that the dynamic of hospitality between guest and host provides a way to think through and beyond the deployment information infrastructures as enframed by a technological mood. The paper concludes with some general implications for a phenomenology of information technology.

Object lessons and invisible technologies

Abstract: In this paper, we explore some of Claudio Ciborra's ideas about the technological object. We do this in contrast to recent analysis by Law and Singleton (L&S) that advocates a methodological radicalism that moves beyond epistemological uncertainties about the technological object to ontological concerns. L&S present a series of stages in this analysis that include fluid objects that change relatively gently and fire objects that have more radical discontinuities. This approach is applied to empirical work studying the engagement practices of a large, sophisticated information infrastructure research project, the Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE). At the start of the DBE engagement process, the DBE was an invisible technology that did not exist and this made the process of engagement with it particularly challenging. Drawing on the analysis presented by, however, the DBE appears to have the ontological characteristics of both the fluid and the fire object. In order to address this dilemma, we draw upon Ciborra's thinking, particularly around the information infrastructure and Gestell as a means that allows us to consider technologies like the DBE as being both fluid and fire objects. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of this work on Claudio Ciborra's legacy for the study of information and communications technologies.

Local adaptations of generic application systems: the case of Veiling Holambra in Brazil

Abstract: This paper focuses on local adaptations, referring to the significant or subtle changes local firms make in their local business processes and rules in order to fit with a generic application system, and to the changes they make in the features of a generic application system. Local adaptations are therefore bidirectional in nature. Although several studies stress the importance of local adaptations for the overall success of information technologies (IT) used across locations, more research is needed regarding what kind of local adaptations are required for a particular generic application system to work well in particular localities. The nature and extent of local adaptations are still poorly understood. This paper provides a concrete illustration of a historically situated local adaptation: the case of Veiling Holambra. This Brazilian cooperative has imported a generic auction marketplace model from Holland and adapted it to local conditions, to succeed in a globalized and competitive flower market. Using concepts drawn from studies on globalization, cross-cultural implementations, and IT-based organizational change literature, we put forward three propositions that help to explain the success of local adaptations. The results of our case study indicate that the immigration of Dutch people was critical for bringing knowledge of cooperative structure and flower production to Holambra and led to a relatively small design-use gap. The ability to take local, contextual requirements into account without neglecting the ‘generic’ knowledge led to the successful implementation of the generic auction model. This mutual influence was particularly enabled by the Brazilian culture of improvization.

Moving to the edge of chaos: bureaucracy, IT and the challenge of complexity

Abstract: Bureaucracies in the Weberian mould, whether of the state or corporate type, are rational-legal structures organized to deliver order, stability and predictability. Early developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) appeared set to deliver such an outcome. Yet the new economy turns out to be more ‘distributed’ than had originally been expected. What is the nature of the challenge that this poses for bureaucracies? To address this question, the paper first presents a conceptual framework, the Information-Space or I-Space, which allows us to explore the relationship between how knowledge is structured and how it flows within and between populations of agents. The paper then examines what cultural and institutional challenges the new ICTs pose for both state and corporate bureaucracies, confronted as they are with the complexities of an increasingly distributed social order.

DCXNET: e-transformation at DaimlerChrysler

Abstract: In 1999, the automotive industry was in a difficult situation: overcapacity and customer demand for faster delivery and better service drove executives to explore the potential business value of the internet. The authors provide a teaching case, which is based on an analysis of the DCXNET initiative which bundled all e-business actions taken by DaimlerChrysler to exploit the opportunities of this then new technology. The teaching case describes the strategic planning process for e-business at DaimlerChrysler, resulting organizational structures and an outline of the components of DCXNET. Furthermore, the authors provide results of the initiative, success factors and lessons learned.

Information technology and the modalisation of organisational behaviour: a theoretical framework

Abstract: Information technologies can transform an organisation's capacity to act effectively and achieve its performance aims. This theoretical paper presents a framework, adapted from the work of the semiotician A.J. Greimas, for qualitatively analysing this shaping of organisational behaviour and effectiveness around the use of IT. This framework permits various forms of capability or constraint in organisational action to be distinguished, in terms of the functional capacities of IT systems or key dimensions of social structure. A multi-faceted consideration of positive and negative outcomes of IT-based activities is thus supported. The use of this framework is demonstrated through brief case examples that illustrate its utility in providing a dynamic perspective on organisational performance and alignment in the use of IT. This theoretical framework equips IS interpretive studies to analyse the shaping of IT-based organisational activity from a standpoint of structures of behaviour or significance in a context of purposeful action.

Knowledge: Climbing the Learning Ladder to a ‘Phenomenological’ View

Abstract: Attempts to summarize Claudio Ciborra’s work through a single theme cannot succeed due to its breadth and the ease in which he moved between subjects. This paper is a tentative attempt to discover a common theme in his work, with the notion of knowledge identified as an appropriate starting point. Encompassing learning and rationality, the theme of knowledge has been persistent and evolving in Ciborra’s work, with three knowledge combinations reflecting its development: knowledge-rationality, knowledge-learning and everyday-knowledge. The first combination depicts rationality as a catalyst in the pursuit of specific objectives that determine knowledge. Ciborra continued his exploration of knowledge by theorizing that background knowledge structure objectives were the basis of sense-making and organizational action, while short term knowledge structure was required to address developing situations. This introduced and provided the foundation for the knowledge-learning combination. Ciborra’s final knowledge combination was predicated on the interpretation of reality as created by the experiences of the individual, including participation in organizational life where feelings, moods and the totality of existence is expressed, delineating the everyday-knowledge combination in the process. Ciborra utilized these and other approaches like the learning ladder in his investigation of complex multilayered subjects like information systems, undertaken from amongst others, a phenomenological vantage point that shaped many of his key contributions.

e-Healthcare in ABC county health department (ABCCHD): trade-offs analysis and evaluation

Abstract: The issue of privacy stirred a tumultuous uproar when the ABC County Health Department (ABCCHD) was planning for an e-Healthcare system that utilized information technology to streamline the administration process of patients. ABCCHD had hired a software vendor, Info-Health, a company that specialized in information system development for the healthcare industry to help in the project. The privacy of patients with Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Human Immunity System was a thorny issue in the implementation of the e-Healthcare system. A trade-off between privacy and cost was discussed and debated. Three alternatives, with varying degrees of privacy and cost, were considered.

24 × 7 @ full speed: accelerated time to market

Abstract: ‘It's only a web site. What could be so difficult about that?’ This quote is from the cafeteria of a start-up business funded by a North American retailer, after the disastrous ‘Black Friday’ of 2000, during which its web site experienced systemic failure. This case describes the dynamics, complexities and consequences of fast tracking an e-business start-up. This consumer electronics retailer created one of the most visited retail web sites, from concept to operation in 6 months. Market analysts were predicting a major increase in online sales while consumers were adopting the Internet at a rate faster than any previous technology. Meeting the multi-channel demands of the dynamic and competitive environment required operational balance, stability, innovative flexibility, organizational fit and the alignment of resource capabilities with technology. This case challenges the reader to comment on how a large company positioned itself and integrated the necessary competencies to compete successfully in a developing market by establishing a spin-off operation, separate from the main company.

Claudio Ciborra and the information systems field: legacy and development

Abstract: T he recent untimely death of Professor Claudio Ciborra in February 2005 raises the question: how can his major contribution to the Information Systems (IS) field be consolidated, celebrated and progressed? His passing was honoured with many personal reminiscences and assessments of his contribution in a special issue of The European Journal of Information Systems (Volume 14 No. 5, 2005). In planning the present Special Issue we intended to take this further, and to consolidate and progress Claudio’s contribution by commissioning detailed research papers influenced by but developing further his work. In ideas and research Claudio was a polymath but also worked in a mainstream European philosophical tradition. At home in the world of Husserl and Heidegger, he could trade ideas with anyone, and could embrace Williamson’s work on Transaction Cost Economics as equally well as the work of Polanyi and Nietzche. Improvisation, innovation and critique were words he frequently used. His book The Labyrinths of Information shows the breadth and depth of the ideas he drew upon. A critique of the IS field, it is organised around Krisis, Bricolage, Gestell, Derive, Xenia, Shi, Kairos and Affectio. His work and interests are also well represented in three collected volumes: Teams Markets and Systems (Cambridge: CUP 1993), From Control To Drift: The Dynamics of Corporate Infrastructures (Oxford: OUP 2001), and The Social Study Of Information and Communication Technologies (Oxford: OUP 2004) Claudio built up a formidable legacy in a field somewhat short of new ideas, methods and directions, let alone philosophical underpinnings. For this special issue we offer a new, unpublished work by him in the form of the first paper The Mind or The Heart: It Depends on (The Definition Of) Situation. This work captures the essential thrust of Claudio’s intent – challenging, thoughtful, well researched, embracing ideas, critical and seeking to move the IS field on, into new territory and new understandings. In this he set a benchmark for our choice of papers. We received twenty submissions, each of which had three referees, and in the end, after a series of paper revisions and difficult choices, we narrowed it down to seven further publishable papers. Some other papers that could not be made ready in time against the tight deadline for this Special Issue would be considered for a more extensive book we are scheduling, and indeed we would like to take this opportunity to invite further contributions to that volume. Interested parties should contact one of the Special Issue editors as listed below, in the first instance. In this present issue two papers elaborate on Ciborra’s phenomenological perspective of IS and its explanatory strengths. In Hospitality, Improvisation and Gestell: A Phenomenology of Mobile Information, Martin Brigham and Lucas Introna provide a clear presentation of these three concepts and demonstrate the way they can enhance our understanding of IS and organisational change by using them to examine changes that occurred in the practice of a fire brigade in the UK when they started using mobile data systems. In The Hospitality Metaphor as a Theoretical Lens to Understand the Process of ICT Adoption Saccol and Reinhard discuss ‘hospitality’ as a new approach for ICT adoption that departs from positivist models. They trace the philosophical origins of this metaphor and its emergence in the IS field mainly through Ciborra’s work and they apply it to gain insights on a case study of a Brazilian Bank that equipped its employees with mobile technology. Amany Elbanna’s paper The Validity of the Improvisation Argument in the Implementation of Rigid Technology: The Case of ERP Systems draws on Ciborra’s work on improvisation and drift. She examines whether these concepts are relevant and valid for ERP projects, which are generally understood as rigid and therefore in need of careful planning. She combines Ciborra’s ideas with an Actor Network Theory (ANT) analysis to argue that improvisation, bricolage and drift are constituent processes of highly structured projects of rigid technology. Edgar Whitley and Mary Darking, in Object Lessons and Invisible Technologies examine the nature of technology artefacts – a longstanding theme in IS research – by contrasting ideas stemming from recent research in the ANT perspective and Ciborra’s phenomenology. They use a European Union project that aims at developing a new technological infrastructure to demonstrate the explanatory capacity of these perspectives and emphasise the significance of the concept of Gestell that Ciborra drew from Heidegger. Petter Nielsen and Marguun Aanestad in Control Devolution as Information Infrastructure Design Strategy: A Case Study of a Content Service Platform for Mobile Phones in Norway draw on Ciborra’s critical writings on control in IS development and the development of ICT infrastructures. They focus on the control vs autonomy choices made in the process of the development of an infrastructure for mobile content by two Notwegian operators. They argue for ‘control devolution’ as a successful strategy that should be followed by the industry Journal of Information Technology (2006) 21, 127–128 & 2006 JIT Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. All rights reserved 0268-3962/06 $30.00