Towards a Contingency View of Infrastructure and Knowledge: an exploratory study

Claudio Ciborra and Ole Hanseth

Chapter 12 in Business Information Technology Management Alternative and Adaptive futures, 2000, pp 178-194 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract IT infrastructures coupled with BPR initiatives have the potential of supporting and enabling new organisational forms and help firms face the challenges of globalisation. The management literature gives prescriptions of how to set up, implement and use infrastructures to reach a new IT capability, diminish transaction costs and obtain competitive advantage. However, the scant empirical basis of such literature goes hand in hand with the lack of a theory linking the deployment of infrastructure to the nature of the business and the industry. This study of the deployment and use of infrastructures in six large multinationals prepares the ground for a contingency approach to the whole issue. The different implementation processes and applications reported by the case studies suggest that there is much more variety than a ‘one best way’ recommended by the literature. The theory of the firm as a repository of knowledge processes is a good candidate to explain qualitatively the empirical evidence, and provides a contingency framework that can be further tested.

Keywords: Business Process; Implementation Process; Customer Relationship Management; Network Externality; Company Case (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-333-97767-5_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780333977675

DOI: 10.1057/9780333977675_13

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().