Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Technology assimilation through conjunctures – a look at IS use in retail

  • Published:
Information Systems Frontiers Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We study the assimilation of information technology by an organization establishing itself in the emerging retail industry in India. We highlight the need for conducting a holistic analysis of the assimilation process that considers the role of various organizational actors, the socio-technical environment, the exogenous factors and the historical context under which the organization is operating. We adopt strong structuration theory, a refinement of Giddens’ structuration theory, as the theoretical lens for studying the technology assimilation process. We combine this with actor network theory to incorporate the socio-technical perspectives. An organization in the Indian retail industry is selected as the empirical context. We analyzed the assimilation process as a series of conjunctures and illustrate how the socio-technical changes, the situated actions and the conjuncture’s context influence the assimilation process. We also highlight the influence of historical context, and the role of organizational actors and actants in the technology assimilation process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. As defined by encyclopedia.com.

  2. Stated values of the company as reported in the company website.

  3. Source: Secondary data, extract from a book on retail in India. Not cited here, as it would reveal the name of the firm.

References

  • Armstrong, C. P., & Sambamurthy, V. (1999). Information technology assimilation in firms: The influence of senior leadership and IT infrastructures. Information Systems Research, 10(4), 304–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baskerville, R., & Land, F. (2004). Socially self-destructing systems. In C. Avegerou & F. Land (Eds.), The social study of information and communications technology: Innovation, actors and contexts (pp. 263–285). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bharati, P., Zhang, C., & Chaudhury, A. (2013). Social media assimilation in firms: Investigating the roles of absorptive capacity and institutional pressures. Information Systems Frontiers, 1–16.

  • Bijapurkar, R. (2009). We are like that only: Understanding the logic of consumer India. Portfolio Penguin

  • Cao, L., Kannan, M., Peng, X., & Balasubramaniam, R. (2009). A framework for adapting agile development methodologies. European Journal of Information Systems, 18, 332–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, M. K., Cheung, W., Cheng, C. H., & Yeung, J. H. (2008). Understanding ERP system adoption from the user’s perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 113(2), 928–942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatterjee, D., Grewal, R., & Sambamurthy, V. (2002). Shaping up for e-commerce: Institutional enablers of the organizational assimilation of web technologies. MIS Quarterly, 65–89.

  • Coad, A. F., & Herbert, I. P. (2009). Back to the future: New potential for structuration theory in management accounting research? Management Accounting Research, 20(3), 177–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, I. (1989). Structuration theory: Anthony giddens and the structuration of Social Life. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dash, M., & Chandy, S. (2009). A study on the challenges and opportunities faced by organized retail players in Bangalore. Available SSRN, 1435218.

  • Deng, X., Doll, W. J., & Cao, M. (2008). Exploring the absorptive capacity to innovation/productivity link for individual engineers engaged in IT enabled work. Inf Manag, 45(2), 75–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeSanctis, G., & Poole, M. (1994). Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: adaptive structuration theory. Organization Science, 2(5), 121–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dholakia, N., Dholakia, R. R., & Chattopadhyay, A. (2012). India’s emerging retail systems coexistence of tradition and modernity. J Macromarketing, 32(3), 252–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dong, L., Neufeld, D., & Higgins, C. (2009). Top management support of enterprise systems implementations. Journal of Information Technology, 24(1), 55–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fichman, R. G. (2000). The diffusion and assimilation of information technology innovations. In Framing the domains of IT management: Projecting the future through the past (pp. 105-128).

  • Gallivan, M. J. (2001). Organizational adoption and assimilation of complex technological innovations: Development and application of a new framework. ACM Sigmis Database, 32(3), 51–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gersick, C. J. (1991). Revolutionary change theories: A multilevel exploration of the punctuated equilibrium paradigm. Academy of Management Review, 16(1), 10–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structure. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenhalgh, T., & Stones, R. (2010). Theorising big IT programmes in healthcare: strong structuration theory meets actor-network theory. Social Science & Medicine, 70(9), 1285–1294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heeks, R. (1996). India’s software industry: State policy, liberalisation and industrial development. Sage Publications, Inc

  • Hitt, L. M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (1996). Productivity, business profitability, and consumer surplus: three different measures of information technology value. MIS Quarterly, 121–142.

  • Jack, L., & Kholeif, A. (2007). Introducing strong structuration theory for informing qualitative case studies in organization, management and accounting research. Qual Res Organ Manag Int J, 2(3), 208–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kachru, U. (2011). India Land of a Billion Entrepreneurs. Pearson Education India

  • Karsten, H. (1995). It’s like everyone working round the same desk:‘ Organizational readings of notes. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 7(1), 7–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Land, F. (2010). The use of history in IS research: An opportunity missed? Journal of Information Technology, 25(4), 385–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. The Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 691–710.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, H., Saraf, N., Hu, Q., & Xue, Y. (2007). Assimilation of enterprise systems: The effect of institutional pressures and the mediating role of top management. MIS Quarterly, 31(1), 59–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyytinen, K., & Newman, M. (2008). Explaining information systems change: A punctuated socio-technical change model. European Journal of Information Systems, 17(6), 589–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markus, M. L., & Robey, D. (1988). Information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research. Management Science, 34(5), 583–598.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martinsons, M. G., & Schindler, F. R. (1995). Organizational visions for technology assimilation: The strategic roads to knowledge-based systems success. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 42(1), 9–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maznevski, M., & Chudoba, K. (2000). Bridging space over time: Global virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. Organization Science, 11(5), 473–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee, A., & Patel, N. (2006). FDI in retail sector: INDIA: A report by ICRIER and ministry of consumer affairs. Academic Foundation: Government of India.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organization Science, 3(3), 398–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orlikowski, W. J. (1996). Improvising organizational transformation over time: A situated change perspective. Information Systems Research, 7(1), 63–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. SAGE Publications, inc

  • Pozzebon, M., & Pinsonneault, A. (2005). Challenges in conducting empirical work using structuration theory: Learning from IT research. Organization Studies, 26(9), 1353–1376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rai, Brown, P., & Tang, X. (2009). Organizational assimilation of electronic procurement innovations. Journal of Management Information Systems, 26(1), 257–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao, R. A., & De, R. (2013). Organizational assimilation of technology in a sunrise Industry–a story of successes and failures. In Y. K. Dwivedi, D. H. Z. Henriksen, A. Wastell, & R. De (Eds.), Grand successes and failures in IT. public and private sectors (pp. 538–554). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rayward, W. B. (1996). The history and historiography of information science: some reflections. Inf Process Manag, 32(1), 3–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, N., Galluch, P. S., Dinger, M., & Grover, V. (2012). Absorptive capacity and information systems research: Review, synthesis, and directions for future research. MIS Quarterly, 36(2), 625–648.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, J. (1998). Evaluating the contribution of structuration theory to the information systems discipline. 6th European Conference on Information Systems. Granada.

  • Sengupta, A. (2008). Emergence of modern Indian retail: an historical perspective. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36(9), 689–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srivastava, R. K. (2008). Changing retail scene in India. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36(9), 714–721.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stones, R. (1996). Sociological reasoning: Towards a past-modern sociology. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stones, R. (2005). Structuration theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyre, M. J., & Orlikowski, W. J. (1994). Windows of opportunity: Temporal patterns of technological adaptation in organizations. Organization Science, 5(1), 98–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wahid, F., & Sein, M. K. (2013). Institutional entrepreneurs: The driving force in institutionalization of public systems in developing countries. Transform Gov People Process Policy, 7(1), 76–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsham, G., & Sahay, S. (1999). GIS for district-level administration in India: Problems and opportunities. MIS Quarterly, 23(1), 39–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, K., Kraemer, K. L., & Xu, S. (2006). The process of innovation assimilation by firms in different countries: a technology diffusion perspective on e-business. Management Science, 52(10), 1557–1576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Y., Li, Y., Wang, W., & Chen, J. (2010). What leads to post-implementation success of ERP? An empirical study of the Chinese retail industry. International Journal of Information Management, 30(3), 265–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this submission was presented at IFIP WG 8.6 2013, please see Rao, R. A., & De, R. (2013) for full detail.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quantitative Methods and Information Systems, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, 560076, India

    Ravi Anand Rao & Rahul De’

Authors
  1. Ravi Anand Rao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rahul De’
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ravi Anand Rao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rao, R.A., De’, R. Technology assimilation through conjunctures – a look at IS use in retail. Inf Syst Front 17, 31–50 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9510-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9510-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation