A social actor understanding of the institutional structures at play in information systems development

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to provide insights into the process of applying Lamb & Kling's user as social actor model as an institutional lens to analyse data and to generate findings of IS practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides an example from a recently published research project why the social actor model was chosen, and an application of how the model was operationalised in data collection and analysis.

Findings

The paper provides two illustrations of theorising the social actor model at different levels: at an elementary level by using instantiation to map the model's constructs to a match in the transcript text; and at a higher level where the model enabled the paper to tie together a number of individual phenomena to construct a broader higher‐level schema.

Originality/value

As the social actor model is relatively new, and few guidelines or examples exist, the paper provides rich insights into the difficulties with the application of this model and a solution for coping with these so that other researchers can read of an example that may be similar to their own and therefore guide their work.

Citation

Rowlands, B. (2009), "A social actor understanding of the institutional structures at play in information systems development", Information Technology & People, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 51-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840910937490