Growth stages of end user computing
Communications of the ACM
Unifying the fragmented models of information systems implementation
Critical issues in information systems research
User information satisfaction: IS implementability and effectiveness
Information and Management
A two-level investigation of information systems outsourcing
Communications of the ACM
Five small secrets to systems success
Information Resources Management Journal - Special issue: information systems success measurement
Achieving the research goal with qualitative methods: lessons learned along the way
Proceedings of the IFIP TC8 WG 8.2 international conference on Information systems and qualitative research
A survey study of the current IS usage in the Chinese manufacturing industry
Information and Management
Operationalising the implementation puzzle: an argument for eclecticism in research and in practice
European Journal of Information Systems
Implementation: The Key to Successful Information Systems
Implementation: The Key to Successful Information Systems
Keeping e-business in perspective
Communications of the ACM - Evolving data mining into solutions for insights
Latecomer Strategies: Evidence From the Semiconductor Industry in Japan and Korea
Organization Science
A system implementation study: management commitment to project management
Information and Management
Rapid Information Technology Change, Coping Mechanisms, and the Emerging Technologies Group
Journal of Management Information Systems
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Hi-index | 0.00 |
The work of this paper centres on a study of business organisations of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), whose continued existence after the reunification of Germany was accomplished by management buyout (MBO), rather than through acquisition by Western firms. The goal was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the sudden and total upgrade of information technology and systems enabled (and necessitated) by the end of Eastern Block isolation from the West. The paper reports on 1992 contacts and site visits with four MBO privatised firms and 1999 follow-up contacts and site visits with the two surviving firms of that group. Analyses are presented, which draw on literature devoted to IT transitions and IS implementation. The notion of technological switchback is introduced to characterise the unique circumstances embodied by the situation under study. It involves a necessary and sudden advance in information technological capabilities, which comes at the expense of a significant and undesirable regression in information system effectiveness. Parallels are drawn to the plights of firms in other transitional economies and firms facing emerging 'technological imperatives.' Conclusions are elucidated, regarding effective short-and long-term adjustment to such situations.