conceptualizations of it

Conceptualizations of IT: Views, Use, & Impact

Information Systems, ICT/IT artifacts, & conceptualizations of ICT for development

ByOsama Mansour

Osama Mansour Linnaeus University

ICT for Business Development 2

Presentation Outline• What is Information Technology; Information Systems (IS)• Defining ICT/IT artifacts• Defining elements of the IT artifact• Types of ICT/IT artifacts• Conceptualizations of ICT/IT artifacts: views, use, and impact• A framework for studying ICT and development• Organizational Value of ICT• IT transforms businesses• Examples of the digital economy• IS Management• Discussion

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What is IT?• Technology has been defined as "practical implementations of

intelligence" [[20], p. 26]. Technology is practical or useful, rather than being an end in itself. It is embodied, as in implements or artifacts, rather than being solely conceptual. It is an expression of intelligence, not a product of blind accident. Technology includes the many tools, techniques, materials, and sources of power that humans have developed to achieve their goals.

• Technologies are often developed in response to specific task requirements using practical reasoning and experiential knowledge.

• Information technology is technology used to acquire and process information in support of human purposes. It is typically instantiated as IT systems - complex organizations of hardware, software, procedures, data, and people, developed to address tasks faced by individuals and groups, typically within some organizational setting.

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Source: March & Smith (1995)


What is Information System (IS)?

• “Information systems are implemented within an organization for the purpose of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of that organization. Capabilities of the information system and characteristics of the organization, its work systems, its people, and its development and implementation methodologies together determine the extent to which that purpose is achieved” (Silver et al., 1995)

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Defining ICT/IT artifact (1)• “By and large, IT artifacts (those bundles of material and cultural

properties packaged in some socially recognizable form such as hardware and/or software)” (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001, p. 121)

• Five premises for theorizing about IT artifacts (p. 131) include:1. “IT artifacts, by definition, are not natural, neutral, universal, or given.” 2. ”IT artifacts are always embedded in some time, place, discourse, and

community.”3. “IT artifacts are usually made up of a multiplicity of often fragile and

complementary components, whose interconnection are often partial and provisional and which require bridging, integration, and articulation in order for them to work together.”

4. “IT artifacts are neither fixed nor independent, but they emerge from ongoing social and economic practices.”

5. “IT artifacts are not static or unchanging, but dynamic.”

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Defining ICT/IT artifact (2)

• “We conceptualize the IT artifact as the application of IT to enable or support some task(s) embedded within a structure(s) that itself is embedded within a context(s).” (Benbasat & Zmud, 2003, p. 186).

• The four elements of an IT artifact include:1. Information Technology, 2. task, 3. task structure, 4. and task context (see Figure 1, p. 188)

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Defining elements of the IT artifact

Source: Benbasat & Zmud (2003) Linnaeus University



• “We recommend expanding the definition of the IT artifact from ‘enabling or supporting some tasks’ to specify IT as the integration of the processing logic found in computers with the massive stores of databases and the connectivity of communications networks. The IT artifact includes IT infrastructure, innovations with technology, and especially the Internet.” (Agarwal & Lucas, 2005, p. 394)

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Defining ICT/IT artifact (4)• “A work system is a system in which human participants and/or machines perform work using

information, technology, and other resources to produce products and/or services for internal or external customers.” (Alter, 2003, p. 368)

• Nine elements of the work system (1-4 are the system, 5-9 the work system):

1. Work practices (business processes) i.e. processing, communication, decision making, coordination, etc.

2. Participants: people who perform the work,3. Information: codified and non-codified info. created by participants,4. Technology: tools that helps people work efficiently GPT and specialized,5. Products and services that it produces: outcome of a work system i.e. information, physical

things, or services. 6. Customers: people who benefit from the work system and its products.7. Environment: organizational, cultural, regulatory, technical, etc that affect the work system.8. External infrastructure that it uses; human, technical resources that a work system relies on.9. and the strategies within which it operates: guiding rationale and high-level choice within which a

work system, organization, or firm is designed and operates.

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• “The work system represents the context within which organizational members perform their assigned work. Thus, the work system includes organizational members, the work tasks undertaken by members, work processes, technology features that enable or support work tasks and processes, and social structures that direct organizational members both in their work-related behaviors and in their interactions with each other.” (Jasperson et al., 2005)

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Types of ICT/IT artifacts• Applications to support the functioning of organizations

(Avgerou, 2000):1. Database Technology,2. Transaction Processing Systems,3. Decision Support Systems (DSS),4. Expert Systems,5. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI),6. Multimedia Systems,7. Computer Supported Cooperative Systems (CSCW).8. Recently Social Media technologies (Web 2.0 & Enterprise 2.0)

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Types of ICT. Cont.: Social Media Technologies

• Social Media & Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is the platform for Social Media where the Web is seen as an architecture of participation (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010)

• Social Media technologies:– Wikis i.e. Wikipedia– Blogs– Micro blogging (Twitter)– Social Networking Sites SNSs (Facebook, MySpace)– Media Sharing i.e. YouTube, Flickr.

• Proposal: Wikis for IS teaching, research, and publication (Kane & Fichman, 2009).

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Conceptualizations of the IT artifact “Views”

• Tool view of Technology: the common technical view of technology in which it is viewed as an engineered artifact expected to do what its designers intend to do.

1. Technology as labor substitution tool: technology substituting for and replacing labor (fewer people can do more work).

2. Technology as productivity tool: this view shifts from labor substitution into labor augmentation in which technology enables individuals and social institutions to extend their reach and achieve performance benefits.

3. Technology as Information processing tool: technology only helps to alter the ways human and organizations are processing information.

4. Technology as social relation tool: technology alters social relations among individuals and organization.

Source: Orlikowski & Iacono (2001)

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Conceptualizations of IT artifacts cont.

• Proxy view of Technology: technology is conceptualized in terms of a surrogate for some other concepts such as perceptions of ICT by individuals and groups, extent of ICT diffusion, ICT as economic capital.

1. Technology as perception: technology is represented in this view in terms of measures of users’ perceptions of technology such as ease of use, usefulness, etc.

2. Technology as diffusion: technology is represented by measures of diffusion and penetration of a particular type of IT artifact (e.g. ERP) within some socio-institutional context such as a firm, industry, etc.

3. Technology as capital: technology in measured in terms of dollars, usually the costs of the tool itself or dollars spend on IS infrastructure and hardware and software. Source: Orlikowski & Iacono (2001)

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• Ensemble view of Technology: the technology or the IT technical artifact is one element in a “package” or “web of computing” (unlike the view in which technology is merely a technical artifact) and that this package also includes components required to apply the artifact in a socio-economic activity such as training, skilled staff, support devises, policies, etc.

1. Technology as development project: technology is represented as an artifact in formation (work in progress) focusing on social processes of designing, developing, and implementing the artifact in an organizational context.

2. Technology as production network: similar to the previous view but technology development is viewed at levels of industry and nation-state where different organizations work together to develop new technologies.

3. Technology as embedded system: technology is an evolving system embedded in a complex and dynamic social context.

4. Technology as structure: technology is seen to embody social structures which were built by designers during its development and then appropriated by users as they interact with technology.


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• Computational view of Technology: technology is represented by its capabilities to represent, manipulate, store, retrieve, transmit, information thereby supporting, processing, modeling, or simulating aspects of the world.1. Technology as algorithm: technology is represented through

algorithmic endeavors to build new or enhance existing computational systems that can support some human activity.

2. Technology as model: focuses on representing social, economic, and informational phenomena through the methodology of data modeling or simulation.


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Conceptualization of ICT “Use”• ICT as a commodity: ICT is seen as a commodity that is used to earn

foreign currency through export i.e. offshore software development, manufacturing computer, etc.

• ICT supporting general development activities: ICT helps in supporting activities related to development, e.g. development planning and the management of development projects, development training.

• ICT as a driver of the economy: ICT can have a macro-level influence in infrastructure development, education, and the development of private sectors, the working of markets and reduce transaction costs.

• ICT directed at specific development projects: ICT is viewed to have a developmental impact when it is used within the context of targeted developmental initiatives i.e. health, employment. Source: Sein & Harindranath (2004)

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Conceptualizations of ICT “Impact”

• The first order or primary effect: is simple substitution of old technology by new e.g. replacing physical post office with new communication technologies such as email.

• The second order or secondary effect: is an increase in the phenomenon enabled by technology.

• The third order or tertiary effect: is the generation of new technology-related businesses and societal change e.g. eCommerce, Virtual organizations, collective intelligence, etc.

Source: Sein & Harindranath (2004)

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A framework for studying ICT and development

Source: Sein & Harindranath (2004)

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Organizational/Business Value of IS• Substituting computer data processing for manual

processing, • profitability and competitiveness, • strategic gains, • enabler of organizational transformation and change, • IT innovation, • societal implications on national • socio-economic development, work, privacy, identity, or

democracy• The value of IS is highly political.

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IT Transforms Businesses The “new” Digital Economy

• Digitization of information: from physical activities of “old economy” to bits stored into computers in “digital economy”

• The evolution of technology and the proliferation of the Internet has resulted greater connectivity, new combinations, and more opportunities for organizations.

• Knowledge has become a utility and a mean to obtain social and economic results. (the knowledge-based economy)

c.f. Drucker, 1993; Neef, 1998; Carlsson, 2004

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Examples from the “new” Digital Economy

• DaimlerChrysler’s FastCar project: 40% faster car development through a new web-based collaborative system.

• The banking industry: online banking and self-service.

• Procter & Gamble (PG): the connect-and-develop innovation model.

• Innocentive: a global innovation marketplace.

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ICT for Business Development

Information Systems Management

• Formation of strategy regarding Information Systems (IS).

• Aligning IS development with business objectives.

• Using IT to achieve desirable organizational change.

• Using IT to manage multinational corporations in the emerging global economy.

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Source: Avgerou (2000)

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Discussion: Q & A

• Reflections on the definitions of ICT/IT artifact• Reflections on ICT views, use, and impact.• ICT and development

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References1. Agarwal, R., Lucas, H. (2005) The Information Systems Identity crisis: focusing on high-visibility and high-impact

research, MIS Quarterly, Vo. 29, No. 3, pp. 381 – 398.2. Alter, S. (2006) Work Systems and IT Artifacts – Does the Definition Matter?, Communications of AIS, Vol. 17, No. 15.3. Avgerou, C. (2000) Information Systems: what sort of science it is? The International Journal of Management Science,

Vol. 28, pp. 567 – 579. 4. Benbasat, I., Zmud, R. (2003) The identity crisis within the IS discipline: defining and communicating the discipline’s

core properties, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 183 – 194.5. Jasperson, J., P.E. Carter, and R.W. Zmud (2005) A Comprehensive Conceptualization of Post- Adoptive Behaviors

Associated with Information Technology Enabled Work Systems, MIS Quarterly, 29(3), September, pp. 525-557.6. Kane, G., Fichman, R. (2009) The shoemaker’s children: Using Wikis for Information Systems teaching, research, and

publication, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 1 – 17.7. Kaplan, A., Haenlein, M. (2010) Users of the World Unite:! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media, Business

Horizons, Vol. 53, pp. 59 – 68.8. March, S., Simth, G. Design and natural science research on information technology, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 15,

pp. 251 – 266. 9. Orlikowski, W., Iacono, S. (2001) Research Commentary: Desperately seeking the “IT” in IT research – a call to

theorizing the IT artifact, Information Systems Research, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 121 – 134.10. Sein, M., Harindranath, G. (2004) Conceptualizing the ICT artifact: Toward understanding the role of ICT in national

development, The Information Society, Vol. 20, pp. 15 – 24.11. Silver, M. S., Markus, M. L., and Beath, C. M. (1995) The Information Technology Interaction Model: A Foundation for the MBA

Core Course, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 361-390.

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