Abstract
In recent years, a number of studies have adopted institutional theory as a perspective for examining Information Systems (IS)/Information Technology (IT)-related phenomena such as IT innovation, IS development and implementation, and IT adoption and use. The objective of this paper is to take stock of how institutional theory is being used in IS research. To this end, it first proposes a conceptual framework to encapsulate the main concepts of institutional theory. Second, it synthesizes the findings of 53 articles that adopted an institutional perspective to study IS/IT phenomena. Finally, it identifies conceptual and methodological issues that researchers need to address when adopting an institutional perspective.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ang, S. and Cummings, L.L. (1997). Strategic Response to Institutional Influences on Information Systems Outsourcing, Organization Science 8(3): 235–256.
Avgerou, C. (2000). I.T. and Organizational Change: An institutionalist perspective, Information Technology & People 13(4): 234–262.
Avgerou, C. (2002). The Institutional Nature of I.C.T. and Organizational Change, in C. Avgerou (ed.) Information Systems and Global Diversity, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 23–49.
Ayres, B.J. (2003). Institutional Influences and Control of Software Development Projects: An examination of air force software project teams, Unpublished Dissertation, Florida State University.
Backhouse, J., Hsu, C.W. and Silva, L. (2006). Circuits of Power in Creating De Jure Standards: Shaping an international information systems security standard, MIS Quarterly 30: 413–438.
Bala, H. and Venkatesh, V. (2007). Assimilation of Interorganizational Business Process Standards, Information Systems Research 18(3): 340–362.
Barca, C. and Cordella, A. (2006). Seconds Out, Round Two: Contextualizing e-government projects within their institutional milieu: A London Local Authority case, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 18(1): 37–60.
Barley, S.R. (2008). Coalface Institutionalism, in R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin and R. Suddaby (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 491–518.
Barley, S.R. and Tolbert, P.S. (1997). Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the links between action and institution, Organization Studies 18(1): 93–117.
Benders, J., Batenburg, R. and Van Der Blonk, H. (2006). Sticking to Standards; Technical and Other Isomorphic Pressures in Deploying E.R.P.-Systems, Information & Management 43(2): 194–203.
Boxenbaum, E. and Jonsson, S. (2008). Isomorphism, Diffusion and Decoupling, in R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin and R. Suddaby (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 78–98.
Burt, R.S. (1987). Social Contagion and Innovation, Cohesion versus Structural Equivalence, American Journal of Sociology 92(6): 1287–1335.
Chatterjee, D., Grewal, R. and Sambamurthy, V. (2002). Shaping up for E-Commerce: Institutional enablers of the organizational assimilation of web technologies, MIS Quarterly 26(2): 65–89.
Chiasson, M.W. and Davidson, E. (2005). Taking industry seriously in information systems research, MIS Quarterly 29(4): 591–605.
Cho, S. and Mathiassen, L. (2007). The Role of Industry Infrastructure in Telehealth Innovations: A multi-level analysis of a telestroke program, European Journal of Information Systems 16(6): 738–750.
Christiaanse, E. and Huigen, J. (1997). Institutional Dimensions in Information Technology Implementation in Complex Network Settings, European Journal of Information Systems 6: 77–85.
Cooper, R.B. and Zmud, R.W. (1990). Information Technology Implementation Research: A technological diffusion approach, Management Science 36(2): 123–139.
Cousins, K.C. and Robey, D. (2005). The Social Shaping of Electronic Metals Exchanges: An institutional theory perspective, Information Technology & People 18(3): 212.
Crowston, K. and Myers, M.D. (2004). Information Technology and the Transformation Of Industries: Three research perspectives, Journal of Strategic Information Systems 13: 5–28.
Currie, W.L. (2004). The Organizing Vision of Application Service Provision: A process-oriented analysis, Information and Organization 14: 237–267.
Currie, W.L. and Guah, M.W. (2007). Conflicting Institutional Logics: A national programme for IT in the organisational field of healthcare, Journal of Information Technology 22(3): 235–247.
Damsgaard, J. and Lyytinen, K. (1998). Contours of Diffusion of Electronic Data Interchange in Finland — 2014; Overcoming technological barriers and collaborating to make it happen, Journal of Strategic Information Systems 7: 275–297.
Daniels, K., Johnson, G. and Chernatony, L.D. (2002). Task and Institutional Influences on Managers’ Mental Models of Competition, Organization Studies 23(1): 31–62.
Davidson, E.J. and Chismar, W.G. (2007). The Interaction of Institutionally Triggered and Technology-Triggered Social Structure Change: An investigation of computerized physician order entry, MIS Quarterly 31(4): 739–758.
Deephouse, D.L. and Suchman, M. (2008). Legitimacy in Organizational Institutionalism, in R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin and R. Suddaby (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 49–77.
Devereaux Jennings, P. and Greenwood, R. (2003). Constructing the Iron Cage: Institutional theory and enactment, in R. Westwood and S. Clegg (eds.) Debating Organization — 2014; Point and Counterpoint in Organization Studies, Malden, MA USA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 195–207.
Dimaggio, P.J. and Powell, W.W. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality, American Sociological Review 48(2): 147–160.
Fligstein, N. (1985). The Spread of the Multidivisional Form among Large Firms, 1919–1979, American Sociological Review 50(3): 377–391.
Gopal, A., Mukhopadhyay, T. and Krishnan, M.S. (2005). The Impact of Institutional Forces on Software Metrics Programs, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 31(8): 679–694.
Gosain, S. (2004). Enterprise Information Systems as Objects and Carriers of Institutional Forces: The new iron cage? Journal of the Association for Information Systems 5(4): 151–182.
Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R. and Hinings, C.R. (2002). Theorizing Change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields, Academy of Management Journal 45(1): 58–80.
Grimshaw, D. and Miozzo, M. (2006). Institutional Effects on the IT Outsourcing Market: Analysing clients, suppliers and staff transfer in Germany and the UK, Organization Studies 27(9): 1229–1259.
Haggerty, N. and Golden, B. (2002). Theorizing Technological Adaptation as a Trigger for Institutional Change, in Twenty-Third International Conference on Information Systems (Barcelona 2002), 247–255.
Haunschild, P. and Chandler, D. (2008). Institutional-Level Learning: Learning as a source of institutional change, in R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin and R. Suddaby (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 624–649.
Henriksen, H.Z. and Damsgaard, J. (2007). Dawn of E-Government — 2014; An institutional analysis of seven initiatives and their impact, Journal of Information Technology 22(1): 13–23.
Hu, Q., Hart, P. and Cooke, D. (2007). The Role of External and Internal Influences on Information Systems Security — 2014; A neo-institutional perspective, Journal of Strategic Information Systems 16: 153–172.
Jepperson, R.L. (1991). Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalization, in W.W. Powell and P.J. DiMaggio (eds.) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 143–163.
Khalifa, M. and Davison, R.M. (2006). SME Adoption of IT: The case of electronic trading systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 53(2): 275–284.
King, J.L., Gurbaxani, V., Kraemer, K.K., Mcfarlan, W.F., Raman, K.S. and Yap, C.S. (1994). Institutional Factors in Information Technology Innovation, Information Systems Research 5(2): 139–169.
Klein, H.K. and Hirschheim, R.A. (1989). Legitimation in Information Systems Development’ a Social Change Perspective, Office: Technology and People 5(1): 29–46.
Kwon, T.H. and Zmud, R.W. (1987). Unifying the Fragmented Models of Information Systems Implementation, in R.J. Boland and R.A. Hirschheim (eds.) Critical Issues in Information Systems, Chichester: Wiley.
Lewis, W., Agarwal, R. and Sambamurthy, V. (2003). Sources of Influence on Beliefs About Information Technology Use: An empirical study of knowledge workers, MIS Quarterly 27(4): 657–678.
Liang, H., Saraf, N., Hu, Q. and Xue, Y. (2007). Assimilation of Enterprise Systems: The effect of institutional pressures and the mediating role of top management, MIS Quarterly 31(1): 59.
Liu, C., Sia, C.-L. and Wei, K.-K. (2008). Adopting Organizational Virtualization in B2B Firms: An empirical study in Singapore, Information & Management 45(7): 429–437.
Lyytinen, K. and King, J.L. (2006). Standard Making: A critical research frontier for information systems research, MIS Quarterly 30(SI): 405–411.
Mangan, A. and Kelly, S. (2009). Information Systems and the Allure of Organisational Integration: A cautionary tale from the Irish financial services sector, European Journal of Information Systems 18(1): 66–78.
Mark, A.L. (2007). Modernising healthcare — 2014; Is the NPfIT for purpose? Journal of Information Technology 22(3): 248–257.
Mekonnen, S.M. and Sahay, S. (2008). An Institutional Analysis on the Dynamics of the Interaction Between Standardizing and Scaling Processes: A case study from Ethiopia, European Journal of Information Systems 17(3): 279–289.
Meyer, J.W. and Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony, American Journal of Sociology 83(2): 340–363.
Miranda, S.M. and Kim, Y.-M. (2006). Professional versus Political Contexts: Institutional mitigation and the transaction cost heuristic in information systems outsourcing, MIS Quarterly 30(3): 725–753.
Miscione, G. (2007). Telemedicine in the Upper Amazon: Interplay with local health care practices, MIS Quarterly 31(2): 403–425.
Nickerson, J.V. and Zur Muehlen, M. (2006). The Ecology of Standards Processes: Insights from internet standard making, MIS Quarterly 30: 467–488.
Nicolaou, A.I. (1999). Social Control in Information Systems Development, Information Technology & People 1(2): 130–147.
Noir, C. and Walsham, G. (2007). The Great Legitimizer — 2014; ICT as myth and ceremony in the Indian healthcare sector, Information Technology & People 20(4): 313–333.
Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic Responses to Institutional Processes, Academy of Management Review 16(1): 145–180.
Orlikowski, W.J. and Barley, S.R. (2001). Technology and Institutions: What can research on information technology and research on organizations learn from each other? MIS Quarterly 25(2): 145–165.
Phang, C.W., Kankanhalli, A. and Ang, C. (2008). Investigating Organizational Learning in eGovernment Projects: A multi-theoric approach, Journal of Strategic Information Systems 17: 99–123.
Purvis, R.L., Sambamurthy, V. and Zmud, R.W. (2001). The Assimilation of Knowledge Platforms in Organizations: An empirical investigation, Organization Science 12(2): 117–135.
Ramiller, N.C. and Swanson, E.B. (2003). Organizing Visions for Information Technology and the Information Systems Executive Response, Journal of Management Information Systems 20(1): 13–50.
Robey, D., Im, G. and Wareham, J.D. (2008). Theoretical Foundations of Empirical Research on Interorganizational Systems: Assessing past contributions and guiding future directions, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 9(9): 497–518.
Rowlands, B. (2008). The Enactment of Methodology — 2014; An institutional account of systems developers as social actors, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 20(2): 21–50.
Scott, R.W. (1995). Institutions and Organizations, Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Scott, R.W. (2001). Institutions and Organizations, Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Scott, W.R. (2008). Institutional and Organizations — 2014; Ideas and interests, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Shepsle, K.A. and Weingast, B.R. (1982). Institutionalizing Majority Rule: A social choice theory with policy implications, The American Economic Review 72(2): 367–371.
Sia, S.K. and Soh, C. (2007). An Assessment of Package-Organisation Misalignment: Institutional and ontological structures, European Journal of Information Systems 16(5): 568–583.
Silva, L. and Figueroa, E.B. (2002). Institutional Intervention and the Expansion of ICTs in Latin America: The case of chile, Information Technology & People 15(1): 8–26.
Soares-Aguiar, A. and Palma-Dos-Reis, A. (2008). Why do Firms Adopt e-Procurement Systems? Using Logistic Regression to Empirically Test a Conceptual Model, Ieee Transactions on Engineering Management 55(1): 120–133.
Soh, C. and Sia, S.K. (2004). An Institutional Perspective on Sources of ERP Package-Organisation Misalignments, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 13(4): 375–397.
Son, J.-Y. and Benbasat, I. (2007). Organizational Buyers’ Adoption and Use of B2B Electronic Marketplaces: Efficiency- and legitimacy-oriented perspectives, Journal of Management Information Systems 24(1): 55–99.
Standing, C., Sims, I. and Love, P. (2009). IT Non-Conformity in Institutional Environments: E-marketplace adoption in the government sector, Information & Management 46(2): 138–149.
Suchman, M.C. (1995). Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches, Academy of Management Review 20(3): 571–611.
Swan, J., Newell, S. and Robertson, M. (1999). Central Agencies in the Diffusion and Design of Technology: A comparison of the UK and Sweden, Organization Studies 20(6): 905–931.
Swan, J., Newell, S. and Robertson, M. (2000). The Diffusion, Design and Social Shaping of Production Management Information Systems in Europe, Information Technology & People 13(1): 27–45.
Swanson, E.B. and Ramiller, N.C. (1997). The Organizing Vision in Information Systems Innovation, Organization Science 8(5): 458–474.
Swanson, E.B. and Ramiller, N.C. (2004). Innovating Mindfully with Information Technology, MIS Quarterly 28(4): 553–583.
Teo, H.H., Wei, K.K. and Benbasat, I. (2003). Predicting Intention to Adopt Interorganizational Linkages: An institutional perspective, MIS Quarterly 27(1): 19–49.
Tingling, P. and Parent, M. (2002). Mimetic Isomorphism and Technology Evaluation: Does imitation transcend judgement, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 3: 113–143.
Tingling, P. and Parent, M. (2004). An Exploration of Enterprise Technology Selection and Evaluation, Journal of Strategic Information Systems 13: 329–354.
Tolbert, P.S. and Zucker, L.G. (1996). The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory, in S. Clegg, C. Hardy and W.R. Nord (eds.) Handbook of Organization Studies, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, pp. 175–190.
Van Akkeren, J. and Rowlands, B. (2007). An Epidemic of Pain in an Australian Radiology Practice, European Journal of Information Systems 16(6): 695–711.
Wang, P. and Swanson, E.B. (2007). Launching Professional Services Automation: Institutional entrepreneurship for information technology innovations, Information and Organization 17: 59–88.
Wang, P. and Swanson, E.B. (2008). Customer Relationship Management as Advertised, Information Technology & People 21(4): 323.
Webster, J. and Watson, R.T. (2002). Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a literature review, MIS Quarterly 26(2): 13–23.
Zilber, T.B. (2008). The Work of Meanings in Institutional Processes and Thinking, in R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin and R. Suddaby (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 151–169.
Zucker, L.G. (1987). Institutional Theories of Organizations, Annual Review of Sociology 13: 443–464.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Journal of Information Technology (JIT)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mignerat, M., Rivard, S. (2015). Positioning the institutional perspective in information systems research. In: Willcocks, L.P., Sauer, C., Lacity, M.C. (eds) Formulating Research Methods for Information Systems. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137509888_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137509888_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56110-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-50988-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)