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

In: Business Information Technology Management Alternative and Adaptive futures

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Ciborra
  • Ole Hanseth

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Ciborra & Ole Hanseth, 2000. "Towards a Contingency View of Infrastructure and Knowledge: an exploratory study," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Ray Hackney & Dennis Dunn (ed.), Business Information Technology Management Alternative and Adaptive futures, chapter 12, pages 178-194, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-333-97767-5_13
    DOI: 10.1057/9780333977675_13
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