Institutional dimensions in information technology implementation in complex network settings

It is increasingly recognised that an institutional perspective can offer explanations for the success and failure of the implementation of information systems. In this paper an institutional perspective is applied to the analysis of two inter-organisational information systems in two very different institutional environments. The analysis of cultural biases, the structural order which supplies coordination mechanisms, and the driving forces of the innovation points to issues which must be taken into account during implementation of inter-organisational information systems. It is concluded that the institutional perspective offers new and promising directions for the analysis of these systems.