Embedded Knowledge and Situated Contexts: Exploring the Ground beneath Information Systems Adoption

The study reports an unsuccessful adoption of information systems in a joint venture initiative. It proposes a knowledge transfer perspective to reconsider information systems adoption. According to this viewpoint, Information systems may be implemented successfully but the internalization can still be ineffective, leading to ultimate adoption failure. IS adoption may fail because the knowledge, embedded in information systems, emerged from the source side, is incongruent with the actual practice (knowledge) enacted from the situated context in the recipient side. A major implication of this research is that, to ensure IS adoption success, it is important to examine the embedded practice (knowledge) and its situated contexts between the source and recipient party.