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Considers the use of information technology in the UK National Health Service (NHS) as the government pledges to connect every doctor or general practitioner (GP) to the NHS’s information superhighway by the year 2002. This paper uses a case study of a particular UK health authority as a vehicle to illustrate the complexity of the social and technical considerations surrounding this issue. At a grass roots level, the adoption and diffusion of information technology within general practices (surgeries or groups of GPs) is highly varied and there are huge contrasts in the levels of commitment to information management. Within the case study this is evident on an individual level, in that some GPs enthuse about technology, while others are positively “technophobic”. On the general practice level, there are other elements to consider, especially in relation to the levels of financial support available. Non‐fund holding general practices in socially deprived areas are far less willing to embrace information management and technology. One explanation suggested for this is based on priorities: when faced with the option of “cruising” the information superhighway, as opposed to treating seriously ill patients living in socially deprived areas, the former may simply be relegated as less important.

OPAC users are first described according to their habits and needs. The usual distinction between ‘naive’ and ‘sophisticated’ users is criticised. The existing OPAC designs are summarised in terms of their information retrieval facilities as well as their dialogue modes. The concept of ease of use is then examined in more detail and several levels are introduced: usability, ease of interaction, communicational ease and ease of searching. Some connections are made between ease of use and existing OPACs. Areas for future research work are suggested.

This article is a continuation and expansion of, which reported on an early stage of “Microcomputer networking in libraries”, a project funded by the British Library Research and Development Department and the Department of Trade and Industry. The work was carried out at the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) by Mitev, Venner and Walker; its main aim was to construct a prototype online public access catalogue (OPAC) using local area network (LAN) hardware. The hardware was a Nestar PLAN 4000 network, using Apple IIe microcomputers as work stations and a 137 megabyte Winchester disc controlled by a 68000‐based file server.

Some of the factors contributing to the risks SMEs take when implementing information technology were investigated in a questionnaire survey of 18 small businesses in the Greater Manchester area, complemented by interviews with the advisers working at the Greater Manchester Business Innovation Centre. New technology can seem a threat to small business owner‐managers and there is a link between business growth and the use of IT. There has been increased adoption of all categories of software, from databases, CAD‐CAM and presentation packages, to spreadsheets and communications software, but respondents expressed dissatisfaction with software, more than with hardware. There is a perceived lack of expertise in the planning process as well as the technology itself. Responses were split over loss of managerial control: SME owner‐managers want to remain in control, IT may be associated with growth, and some may resist growth. A strong need for impartial advice, independent from computer vendors, has been expressed, and a worrying number of respondents did not consider maintenance and training costs when purchasing technology. Organisational factors such as staff skill levels, familiarisation time, and the impact on jobs, were rarely considered prior to purchase. Opinions on training provision were divided. More complex IT‐related business and organisational changes may require integrated technical and managerial training, so that SMEs can become more strategically oriented and benefit better from IT.

This paper investigates how Information Systems (IS) researchers apply institutional theoretical frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to explore the operationalization of meta-theoretical frameworks for empirical research which can often present difficulties in IS research. The authors include theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects to explore modalities of use and suggest further avenues.

After an overview of institutional concepts, the authors carry out a thematic analysis of journal papers on IS and institutional frameworks indexed in EBSCO and ABI databases from 1999 to 2009. This consists of descriptive, thematic coding and cluster analysis of this textual database, this combined qualitative and quantitative method offers a unique way of analyzing how operationalization is carried out.

The findings suggest three groups of publications which represent different methodological approaches and empirical foci: “descriptive exploratory approaches,” “generalizing approaches,” and “sociological approaches.” The authors suggest that these three groups represent possible patterns of the use of “meta” social theories in IS research, reflecting a search for disciplinary legitimacy. This helps us analyze papers according to how they use and apply theories. The authors identify the “organizing vision” and the regulatory approach as two institutionalist “intermediary” concepts developed by IS researchers. Furthermore, the authors find that institutional theoretical frameworks have been used in “direct,” “intermediary” or “combined” conceptualizations. The authors also confirm the dynamism of the IS institutional research stream, as evidenced by the increase in number of articles between 1999 and 2009, and identify a maturation process of the IS field in investigating a social theory.

The evolution the authors identify in the application of institutional theoretical frameworks in the IS field reveals conformity in methodological, theoretical and empirical terms. By identifying these patterns, it becomes possible to understand institutional reasons for their existence and legitimacy; and to propose other avenues of exploration in future IS research, such as combining different theoretical lenses in institutional frameworks. The methodological contribution is to provide an innovative methodology which helps describe categories and levels of institutional theoretical frameworks used, leading to the identification of gaps and proposing further avenues of research.

Critically reviews and compares the concepts of business process re‐engineering (BPR), which has recently addressed the issue of changing organizations through the use of information technology (IT) and socio‐technical design (STD), which has traditionally been concerned with the matching of social and technical systems, seen as fundamental to the design of computer systems in organizations. Challenges the notion that STD can humanize BPR and argues that, by promoting this association, STD experts isolate such techniques as employee participation and teamwork from wider issues related to changing managerial discourses and economic contexts. BPR is remarkable in that it goes beyond previous managerial discourses such as total quality management, particularly in how it combines IT‐induced change with “soft” ideas such as empowerment and teamwork, therefore reinforcing management control and diluting issues of power relationships. STD specialists have traditionally been dedicated to promoting emancipation and socially responsible choices, and should therefore seriously examine BPR in terms of its theoretical and ethical assumptions and its practical implications.

Addresses the latest vogue in managerial theory – business process re‐engineering (BPR). Locates BPR within other recent challenges to traditional modes of organizing work, and subjects it to some critical scrutiny in order to provide some markers for further work. Examines BPR in terms of the assumptions which it claims not to have, and in terms of the contradictions entailed by its use of concepts of commitment, empowerment and technology. Overall, aims to provide HRM professionals and academics with some of the arguments that may be deployed to challenge the excessive enthusiasm of some BPR advocates.

This paper seeks to offer a retrospective look at an intellectual journey in and out of using actor‐network theory, which the author drew on to carry out an in‐depth case study of the troubled implementation of a computerised reservation system in a major transport company. The application of some key ANT concepts, i.e. human and non‐human actors, symmetry and translation, is reflected upon, highlighting their benefits and limitations.

The paper's aims are accomplished through a confessional account of how it was done, rather than a normative post hoc justification. Some empirical evidence is provided to illustrate the difficulties and problems encountered in travelling back and forth between theory, methodology and data.

In particular, ANT was very useful in focusing the paper on how to look at IS success and failure symmetrically and how social and technical distinctions are socially constructed, for instance in the conception and application of yield management software. Formulating a series of translations to encompass a large number of actors is shown to have provided some explanatory capacity. But a limitation is how to relate local and global actors, which is also a matter of power relations and politics.

The paper explains why, as a late and unplanned reaction to this, but also in contradiction with ANT principles, it ended up complementing ANT with Clegg's theory of power to bridge that gap. The paper concludes with a discussion of where the difficulties lie in using ANT and how it can be misused in IS research; the author argues that this is due to a lack of exposure to post‐structuralism in IS research, compared with other management‐related disciplines; and that recent efforts by scholars in the science and technology studies field to combine constructivist approaches such as ANT with critical social analysis should be considered.

Presents part of ongoing research into French Railways (SNCF) and the introduction of Socrate, a computerized reservation and ticketing system. SNCF bought Sabre from American Airlines in order to build Socrate; one of its aims was to transform commercial activities through the instigation of a new philosophy of selling, based on a technological investment, importing techniques, such as yield management, used in the airline industry. Seeks to understand the links between the strategic and political aims and the technical choices, as well as how actors interpret and appropriate technical tools. Argues that Socrate is an integral part of the problematic adoption of a new rail transport model based on the deregulated airline industry.

Search trees presented in this article control system responses and determine appropriate subject searching approaches to user queries. Users do not explicitly choose a particular approach. Rather, systems respond with an approach based on the extent to which queries match the catalog's controlled vocabulary and produce retrievals. The benefit of incorporating search trees into online bibliographic systems is the ability to place the responsibility of determining which approach produces the best results on the system.