Examining the coalition dynamics affecting information systems project abandonment decision-making

Despite recent reports that suggest growing evidence of a higher rate of information systems project success, experts have warned against complacency over the risks associated with project failure. While IS project failure has been attracting constant attention in recent years, IS project abandonment – which is a subset of the larger organizational issues of IS failure – has been largely ignored. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the project abandonment phenomenon. We undertook a case study of an abandoned electronic procurement project to investigate the coalition dynamics affecting project abandonment decision-making – an area that is remotely addressed in the project abandonment literature. We found that antecedent conditions, level of coping with uncertainty, level of substitutability, and level of centrality are key issues in the coalition dynamics that influence project abandonment decisions. Research and practical implications of these findings were discussed, and we concluded with a summary of the contributions of this study and a note on its limitations.