Actor-network theory in IS research: critique on application of the principle of generalized symmetry

Actor-network theory (ANT) has been gaining popularity as a guiding theoretical apparatus in Information Systems (IS) research, notably research involving IS projects as such projects are seen as assemblages of people, technologies, project documents, methodologies, and other actors. A key tenet of ANT is generalized symmetry, which advocates that human and material actors be viewed on the same analytic plane. A persistent critique of ANT-based IS research is that researchers employing ANT routinely fail to uphold the ideal of generalized symmetry. Critics often point out that many ANT-based IS research accounts (whether consciously or unconsciously) privilege humans as the dominant actors in actor-networks, while paying lip-service to the idea of generalized symmetry for all actors. This paper contributes toward understanding the underlying issues of this critique by assessing the current level of compliance to ANT's principle of generalized symmetry in ANT-based IS research. Using a hermeneutic literature review approach, we investigate how the main constructs, principles, practices and techniques of the full apparatus of ANT have been identified, applied and documented in recent ANT-based IS research studies as reported in the extant literature. This review provides an updated and refreshed understanding of the current level to which ANT's principle of generalized symmetry is upheld in ANT-based IS research.

[1]  Amany R. Elbanna,et al.  Implementing an integrated system in a socially dis-integrated enterprise: A critical view of ERP enabled integration , 2007, Inf. Technol. People.

[2]  Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic,et al.  Reframing Success and Failure of Information Systems: A Performative Perspective , 2014, MIS Q..

[3]  Peter Trkman,et al.  Actors' misaligned interests to explain the low impact of an information system - A case study , 2014, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[4]  Ping Gao,et al.  Understanding eGovernment Failure: An Actor-Network Analysis of Thailand's Smart ID Card Project , 2010, PACIS.

[5]  N. Wickramasinghe,et al.  Transition from Paper to Electronic Nursing Documentation in Residential Aged Care: an Actor Network Theory Analysis , 2015 .

[6]  Luiz Antonio Joia,et al.  Examining the Implementation of a European Patent Management System in Brazil from an Actor-Network Theory Perspective , 2016, Inf. Technol. Dev..

[7]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Technological Change in Developing Countries: Opening the Black Box of Process using Actor-Network Theory , 2013 .

[8]  John Effah,et al.  Mobilizing Culture for E‐Business in Developing Countries: An Actor Network Theory Account , 2012, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[9]  Lars Mathiassen,et al.  Contextual dynamics during health information systems implementation: an event-based actor-network approach , 2008, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[10]  Kosheek Sewchurran,et al.  Rethinking Information Systems Projects Using Actor‐Network Theory: A Case of Malawi , 2013, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[11]  Sebastian K. Boell,et al.  A Hermeneutic Approach for Conducting Literature Reviews and Literature Searches , 2014, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[12]  Radhouane B. N. Jrad,et al.  Challenges of inter-organizational information and middleware system projects: Agility, complexity, success, and failure , 2015, 2015 6th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications (IISA).

[13]  Pei-Chia Chang,et al.  Achieving Network Stability through Convergence--Case Study of an E-Government Project Using Actor Network Theory , 2012, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[14]  Julien Pollack,et al.  Applying Actor–Network Theory as a sensemaking framework for complex organisational change programs , 2013 .

[15]  P. M. Alexander,et al.  A study using a graphical syntax for actor-network theory , 2014, Inf. Technol. People.

[16]  Yanqing Duan,et al.  Examining emerging ICT's adoption in SMEs from a dynamic process approach , 2014, Inf. Technol. People.

[17]  Stephanie Watts,et al.  Contested artifact: technology sensemaking, actor networks, and the shaping of the Web browser , 2004, Inf. Technol. People.

[18]  Nathalie N. Mitev,et al.  In and out of actor-network theory: a necessary but insufficient journey , 2009, Inf. Technol. People.

[19]  Marc Berg,et al.  Guest editors' introduction: Actor-network theory and information systems. What's so special? , 2004, Inf. Technol. People.

[20]  A. Bruni,et al.  Reassembling the Social—An Introduction to Actor Network Theory , 2007 .

[21]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  A tale of two coalitions – marginalising the users while successfully implementing an enterprise resource planning system , 2015, Inf. Syst. J..

[22]  Monique Aubry,et al.  Extending project management research: Insights from social theories , 2014 .

[23]  Sebastian Olbrich,et al.  Information Systems Theory: Explaining and Predicting Our Digital Society (Vol. 2) , 2011 .

[24]  Amany R. Elbanna.  Top management support in multiple-project environments: an in-practice view , 2013, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[25]  Tamara Krajna,et al.  SCImago Journal & Country Rank , 2008 .

[26]  Nick Letch,et al.  Exploring the Global and Local Networks of National Information System Integration Initiatives: A Case Study of National Cultural Collection Integration from an Actor-Network Perspective. , 2012 .

[27]  Radhouane B. N. Jrad,et al.  Inter-Organizational Information and Middleware System Projects: Success, Failure, Complexity, and Challenges , 2015, AMCIS.

[28]  Stéphanie Missonier,et al.  Stakeholder analysis and engagement in projects: From stakeholder relational perspective to stakeholder relational ontology , 2014 .

[29]  Deborah Compeau,et al.  Actor-Network Theory as a sociotechnical lens to explore the relationship of nurses and technology in practice: methodological considerations for nursing research. , 2016, Nursing inquiry.

[30]  Frantz Rowe,et al.  What literature review is not: diversity, boundaries and recommendations , 2014, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[31]  Nathalie N. Mitev,et al.  A multiple narrative approach to information systems failure: a successful system that failed , 2008, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[32]  Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi,et al.  Information Systems Theory: Explaining and Predicting Our Digital Society, Vol. 2 , 2011 .

[33]  Anna Sidorova,et al.  Understanding Business Process Change Failure: An Actor-Network Perspective , 2006, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[34]  Lise Justesen,et al.  Project temporalities: how frogs can become stakeholders , 2013 .

[35]  Samer Faraj,et al.  Examining Alignment of Frames Using Actor-Network Constructs: The Implementation of an IT Project , 2007, AMCIS.

[36]  Retha de la Harpe,et al.  The level of participation during the development of a mobile application for home-based healthcare data in a developing context: an actor-network theory perspective , 2014, South Afr. Comput. J..

[37]  Chitu Okoli,et al.  A Guide to Conducting a Systematic Literature Review of Information Systems Research , 2010 .

[38]  Esselina Macome.  On implementation of an information system in the Mozambican context: The EDM case viewed through ANT lenses , 2008 .

[39]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Understanding e-Government project trajectories from an actor-network perspective , 2007, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[40]  Jo Rhodes,et al.  Using Actor-Network Theory to trace an ICT (telecentre) implementation trajectory in an African women's micro-enterprise development organization , 2009 .

[41]  Sebastian K. Boell,et al.  On being ‘systematic’ in literature reviews in IS , 2015, J. Inf. Technol..

[42]  Cathy Urquhart,et al.  The affordances of actor network theory in ICT for development research , 2010, Inf. Technol. People.

[43]  Yichuan Wang,et al.  Business Intelligence and Analytics Education: Hermeneutic Literature Review and Future Directions in IS Education , 2015, AMCIS.

[44]  Irwin Brown,et al.  Profiling grounded theory approaches in information systems research , 2013, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[45]  I. Brown,et al.  Introducing a Mobile Payment System to an Emerging Economy's Mobile Phone Subscriber Market. An Actor Network Perspective , 2014, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[46]  Amany R. Elbanna,et al.  Rethinking IS project boundaries in practice: A multiple-projects perspective , 2010, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[47]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  GIS for District-Level Administration in India: Problems and Opportunities , 1999, MIS Q..

[48]  劉秋菊,et al.  Actor-Network Theory and IS research: current status and future prospects , 2007 .

[49]  Laurence Brooks,et al.  Using Actor Network Theory to Interpret the Introduction of Information Systems within the London Ambulance Service , 2008, AMCIS.

[50]  Jo Rhodes,et al.  Research Article Using Actor-Network Theory to Trace an ICT (Telecenter) Implementation Trajectory in an African Women's Micro-Enterprise Development Organization , 2009 .

[51]  Richard Hall,et al.  Lost in translation? An actor-network approach to HRIS implementation , 2013, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[52]  Devinder Thapa,et al.  The Role of ICT Actors and Networks in Development: The Case Study of a Wireless Project in Nepal , 2011, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[53]  M. Callon.  Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay , 1984 .

[54]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Technological change in developing countries: opening the black box of process using actor–network theory , 2015 .

[55]  I. Brown,et al.  Rethinking Information Systems Projects using Actor-Network Theory – Perspectives from a Developing Country , 2013 .

[56]  Peter Weimann,et al.  Information systems and culture - a systematic hermeneutic literature review , 2016, CONF-IRM.

[57]  Joan Antoni Pastor,et al.  Unravelling the dynamics of IOIS implementation: an actor-network study of an IOIS in the seaport of Barcelona , 2008, J. Inf. Technol..

[58]  Andrew R.J. Dainty,et al.  How actor‐network theories can help in understanding project complexities , 2011 .

[59]  Aziz Sheikh,et al.  Implementing and adopting electronic health record systems: How actor‐network theory can support evaluation , 2011 .

[60]  Johanes Eka Priyatma.  Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) July 2008 EVALUATING THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF E-GOVERNMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES USING ACTOR NETWORK THEORY , 2017 .

[61]  Sue Newell,et al.  The Sociomaterialty of Information Systems: Current Status, Future Directions , 2014, MIS Q..