APPLYING ADAPTIVE STRUCTURATION THEORY TO DATAWAREHOUSE IMPLEMENTATION: A FIELD STUDY

摘要

This paper presents observations derived from interviews conducted over a five month period with employeesrnof a large U.S. Based financial services organization. The focus of the paper is to differentiate between areasrnof the organization that successfully integrated data warehouse technologies into their everyday workrnenvironment versus those that did not. These differences are presented using a theoretical framework suppliedrnby adaptive structuration theory (AST). AST recognizes that these organizational areas are comprised of socialrnsystems operating with specific social practices and norms. Furthermore, AST describes how newrntechnological innovations (such as data warehouses) will both impact, and be impacted by, the social practicesrnand norms of the adopting group. In other words, the differences between successful and unsuccessfulrnintegration cannot be evaluated outside the context supplied by the existing social systems.rnThis field study furnishes some indication that adaptive structuration theory provides a useful framework forrnexplaining observed differences between social systems that successfully appropriated the data warehouse, andrnsocial systems that were unsuccessful in this appropriation. The study supports the notion that in examiningrnthe effects of introducing data warehouse technologies into an organization, it is important to account forrncontextual factors influencing the organization?s various social systems. It also focuses attention on the factorsrneffecting the generation of stable appropriations and the importance of these factors in the acceptance of a datarnwarehouse by organizational social systems.