Although inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) implementation has been widely studied, mainstream literature has not focused on understanding how implementation unfolds and how the existing components of the installed base shape the process. This paper addresses this gap by conducting a socio-technical, process-oriented, and multilevel study. Based on a longitudinal in-depth case study of the implementation of an industry IOIS, we develop an explication of IOIS implementation that considers the role of the installed base. Using the lens of actor-network theory (ANT), we counter the mainstream IOIS literature by showing that IOIS implementation cannot only be explained by a fixed set of independent factors; instead, the dynamic mutual shaping of socio-technical actors throughout implementation complements existing factor-based models in explaining the evolution and the outcome (success or failure). The study also shows the importance of complying with the technical and non-technical components of the installed base for an IOIS to be successfully initiated.

Although the literature has repeatedly shown that inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) are prone to abandonment and low levels of adoption, a great deal of research examining such unsatisfactory outcomes has focused on phenomena occurring in the early stages of the implementation, thus, leaving the post-implementation period under-explored. This paper presents a conceptual lens through which we study two interrelated post-implementation phenomena: managerial intervention and users' appropriation. Specifically, we develop a structurational model to examine IOIS management intervention to boost IOIS assimilation, the situated and emergent appropriations of the IOIS that followed and the ongoing adaptations by those intervening in these processes. Actors shape the context for others' actions by offering modalities of structuring -i.e. new meanings, new procedures, new software applications -which are then taken up in practice by adopters, giving rise to both intended and unintended outcomes. The paper contributes with a multi-level process-based study that (1) conceives IOIS assimilation as an episodic process in which there are dialectical tensions between users and IOIS management; and (2) identifies two forms of managerial intervention targeting diverse aspects of the institutional context that lead to assimilation.

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A b s t r d C t On the basis of a longitudinal interpretive case study, this paper explores the dynamics in the implementation of an industry interorganizational information system (lOIS). The paper covers 11 years (1994-2005) of the implementation process. We use the lens of actor network theory (ANT) to analyze the process of emergence, development, and progressive stabilization of a socio-technical network, that of the lOIS. We focus on the negotiations and translation of interests that occur during the implementation of the lOIS. By using ANT we develop a different reading of the implementation process, which we believe provides a holistic view of the implementation, andean be adapted and applied to similar implementation projects. ANT is suitable as it helps us trace the course of the implementation, and because of the nature of the lOISandofthe implementation process, which involves political negotiations.