Abstract What is it that determines the identity of an entity? Processualism a theoretical perspective offers startling answer to this question. The entity—whether human or nonhuman, animate inanimate—depends on set relations in which entity located. And as sets are several, so identities can take. This article discusses conclusion by integrating processual accounts from different fields inquir...

The exponential random graph model (ERGM) is an increasingly popular method for the statistical analysis of networks that can be used to flexibly analyze the processes by which policy actors organize into a network. Often times, interpretation of ERGM results is conducted at the network level, such that effects are related to overall frequencies of network structures (e.g., the number of closed...

This article presents and discusses a selection of theories concerned with describing and explaining human action in context: activity theory, actor-network theory, interactionist theory of work, and structuration theory. The theories have some characteristics in common, although their emphasis and basic perspectives are different. The similarities and differences are illustrated by a case in t...

Nurses’ conceptualization and learning of health technology used in practice: An Actor-Network Theory analysis Richard G. Booth, RN, MScN, PhD(c), Mary-Anne Andrusyszyn, RN, EdD, Carroll Iwasiw, RN, EdD, Lorie Donelle, RN, PhD, Deborah Compeau, HBA, PhD The University of Western Ontario, Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, London, Canada; The University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey Scho...

The paper explores the rise of activity-based costing (ABC). Drawing on actor-network theory, we follow key actors, and their intermediaries, as they construct ABC through a network of human and non-human allies. Drawing on Giddens’ discussion of the dynamics of modernity, we show how ABC is formed, and reformed, in processes of disembedding and reembedding, and how it becomes affiliated to ‘ne...

Scholarship addressing the social and organizational issues surrounding enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is blossoming. However, many of these studies produce unhelpful readings of the characteristics of ERP and its implications for organizations. The typical ‘ERP implementation case study’ has been given undue emphasis within Information Systems (IS) research. Often influenced by con...

abSTraCT The provision of higher education courses within further education colleges in England poses particular questions for the researcher. This article argues that the complexities of the relationships between colleges where courses are run, and the universities that supply these courses, can be fruitfully explored using actor-network theory. This article provides an actor-network account o...

Building on social embeddedness theory, we examine how the competencies and resources of one corporate actor in a network are transferred to another actor that uses them to enhance transactions with a third actor—a strategic process we dub ‘network transitivity.’ Focusing on the properties of network transitivity in the context of small-firm corporate finance, we consider how embedded relations...