| Understanding the causes of information technology (IT) implementation success is vital to today's organizations. Prior research has examined the implementation of technology at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Traditional explanations for the effects of technology implementation on outcomes of interest have relied on constructs derived from the attributes of individuals, groups, technologies, and organizational contexts, while often relying on proxies for social influence. Social network theories hold that actors are embedded in complex networks of relationships that may both constrain behavior and enhance productive capacity. There is limited research that examines behaviors in terms of both individual attributes and the social structures in which the individual is embedded. This dissertation, organized into three essays, addresses this gap by integrating the social network perspective into the nomological network related to technology implementation. Essay 1 examines the influence of how different types of advice networks influence job performance in the context of a new enterprise system implementation. Essay 2 leverages advice, hindrance and friendship networks to understand the effects on different conceptualizations of technology use and job performance. Essay 3 examines the co-evolution of employee advice networks and technology use in the context of an IT implementation. The models proposed in each of the three essays were studied via separate studies in three different business units of a large organization and involved multiple waves of data collection. This dissertation is expected to contribute to the information systems literature by deepening our understanding of IT implementation success and contribute to social networks research by enriching our conceptualization of social networks and their evolution. |
