Interorganizational Information Systems Diffusion: A Social Network Perspective

The adoption process of interorganizational information systems (IOIS) has been widely studied. However, little is known of the forces actually acting against their diffusion and deployment. We suggest the adoption of some structures derived from social network studies to explore the context and environment of the diffusion process of an IOIS. We imply that the adoption of an IOIS depends not only on its nature of “innovation” but also on its diffusion processes intended as the flow of communication within a system of interdependent actors leading to a dynamic process of social influence. Using both the concept of avalanches and bifurcations as predictors of change in a nonlinear diffusion of innovation process, we explore the case of the adoption of a new HR management system after the merger of two large pharmaceutical groups providing evidence that this methodology could shed light on adoption occurrences only implied in previous studies.