When Institutional Logics Meet Information and Communication Technologies: Examining Hybrid Information Practices in Ghana’s Agriculture

Abstract

In this paper, we describe how changes in the availability of information artifactsin particular, information and communication technologies (ICTs)-among smallholder farmers in Ghana, led to a process of hybridization of information practices, and how this process could be linked to underlying institutional change. We use the notions of institutional carriers and activity systems to study the evolution of the prevailing "smallholder" institutional logic of Ghanaian agriculture toward an incoming "value-chain" institutional logic concerned with linking farmers to output markets, improving the knowledge base in agriculture, and increasing its information intensity. We draw on a mixed-methods approach, including in-depth qualitative interviews, focus groups, observations, and detailed secondary quantitative data. We cultivate activity theory as a practice-based lens for structuring inquiry into institutional change. We find that information artifacts served to link the activities of farmers that were embedded in the smallholder logic with those of agriculturaldevelopment actors that promoted the value-chain logic. Hybridization occurred through the use of artifacts with different interaction modalities. In terms of conceptualizing change, our findings suggest that hybridization of the two logics may be an intermediary point in the long transition from the smallholder toward the valuechain logic.

The Negative Effects of Institutional Logic Multiplicity on Service Platforms in Intermodal Mobility Ecosystems

“…Within a sector, such as mobility, early shifters can invalidate the value proposition of competitors who rely on the prior dominant institutional logic (Watson et al 2012). IT can enable or constrain a shift, since the IT developed up to this point reflects the needs of the current dominant institutional logic (Slavova and Karanasios 2018;Watson et al 2012). For instance, Slavova and Karanasios (2018) show how IT enables the transition of Ghanaian farmers from a smallholder to a value-chain dominant logic.…”

Learning from Workaround Practices: the Challenge of Enterprise System Implementations in Multinational Corporations

“…Engeström (, ) in particular, has developed activity theory by expanding on the concept of “activity system” and advancing a focus on collective activities and concern for how they develop and transform over time. These developments have opened it up to use in the study of organizations (Jarzabkowski, ) and, more specifically, in the study of information systems and work practices (Forsgren & Byström, ; Simeonova, ; Slavova & Karanasios, ). Below we discuss how we draw on activity theory to answer our research question.…”

Poverty alleviation through government‐led e‐commerce development in rural China: An activity theory perspective

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“…In this study, we chose to use activity theory as our primary theoretical lens for 2 considerations. First, as a few previous studies pioneered, it has been theoretically fruitful to apply activity theory in studies of information technology and economical and societal development (eg, Hasan, Smith, & Finnegan, ; Karanasios, ; Karanasios & Allen, ; Slavova & Karanasios, in press). In activity theory, the various steps, components, and aspects of the mechanisms through which actors transform the status quo are “analytically inseparable moments of a single unit of analysis, the activity system”(Allen et al, , p. 840), which allows researchers to conduct their analyses at the levels of systems and networks of systems.…”