Interorganisatorische Informationsinfrastrukturen - Strukturen, Praktiken und Entwicklungsmuster
Final Report Abstract
The objective of this research project was to study the evolution of information infrastructures. Our research design aimed at empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions. Empirically we examined and reconstructed the historical development of a number of healthcare information infrastructures, such as drug dispensing, tracing and tracking, e-prescription and electronic patient records across different countries. Our empirical studies combine a historical perspective to explore contingencies and development paths over a couple of years and try to figure out changing rationales, explanatory frameworks as well as a transformation of sense-making. Methodologically we have used a broad range of exploratory methods (interviews, secondary analysis, workshops) and have developed and applied the approach of Practice Probes and Learning Communities. In consequence the research designs include macro level studies (historical development of national infrastructures) as well as micro level studies of collaboration and learning within regional constellation of practices. Theoretically we have continued to develop a practice theoretical notion of information infrastructures and their evolution. We have conceptualized information infrastructures as constellations of practices, which provides us with a level and unit of analysis which seems appropriate and productive for the study of infrastructures. Against this novel theoretical understanding of information infrastructures we have evaluated the power of several existing approaches to explain information infrastructure evolution, including evolutionary, dialectical and life cycle approaches. Many of the theoretical contributions that we have made in this project are (also) based on empirical material collected over the last ten years (as part of this and a previous DFG-funded project); likewise, much of the new empirical material has been collected in view of its role for future analyses; this especially concerns the rich data collected through ongoing work in the several Learning Communities only a small part of which has yet been used for systematic analysis. The establishment of these Learning Communities as well as the richness of the data that have already been created in these communities form the main methodological foundation for our future proposals.
Publications
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(2013) Emergence of Information Infrastructures: A Tale of Two Islands, International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 11, 3, 231–251
Schellhammer, S., Reimers, K. and Klein, S.
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(2013) Novicebased Data Collection Methods for the Study of IOIS: Practice Probes and Learning Communities, Electronic Markets, 23, 4, 285–293
Reimers, K., Johnston, R.B., Guo, X., Klein, S., Xie, B. and Li, M.
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(2014) An Empirical Evaluation of Existing IS Change Theories for the Case of IOIS Evolution, European Journal of Information Systems, 23, 4, 373–399
Reimers, K., Johnston, R.B. and Klein, S.
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(2014) How Do Industry-wide Information Infrastructures Emerge? A Life Cycle Approach, Information Systems Journal, advance online publication on 7 March 2014
Reimers, K., Li, M., Xie, B. and Guo, X.
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(2014) Infrastructure Innovation in Health Care: The Example of Automatic Drug Dispensing in Germany. S. 52-77, in Mongili, A. and Pellegrino, G. (Eds.) Information Infrastructure(s): Boundaries, Ecologies, Multiplicity. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge. - 9781443866552
Klein, S. and Schellhammer, S.
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(2014) Network Relations and Boundary Spanning: Understanding the Evolution of e-ordering in the Chinese Drug Distribution Industry, Journal of Information Technology, 29, 223–236
Guo, X., Reimers, K., Xie, B. and Li, M.
