Loughborough University
Browse

The role of formal controls in facilitating information system diffusion

Download (225.04 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2015-06-05, 08:46 authored by Mumin Adetunji Abubakre, M.N. Ravishankar, Crispin Coombs
Information systems (IS) studies highlight that IS usage, a pre-requisite for IS diffusion, may be difficult to attain when usage is voluntary because users can resist using the system. User resistance may be overcome through the application of organizational controls. Control theory explains how users’ actions and practices are shaped in line with organizational guidelines and procedures. This paper reports on a qualitative case study and shows how formal control mechanisms (behavior and outcome controls) can have a positive and conclusive impact on IS diffusion. The paper makes three contributions to knowledge. First, it explains how the application of outcome control mechanisms can lead to IS diffusion despite user resistance. Second, it suggests that IS diffusion paths are iterative, rather than smooth and linear. Finally, the paper demonstrates that in some contexts, despite a lack of reward expectancy, sanction expectancy can be an effective force during the IS diffusion process.

History

School

  • Business and Economics

Department

  • Business

Published in

Information and Management

Volume

Accepted version

Citation

ABUBAKRE, M.A., RAVISHANKAR, M.N. and COOMBS, C., 2015. The role of formal controls in facilitating information system diffusion. Information and Management, 52(5), pp.599-609.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Information and Management and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2015.04.005.

Language

  • en