“We provide a solution that allows saving 15 to 20 euros per invoice...It is very important in a strategy of service and cost reductions for our customers and for us.” “For us, it is very important as we generally reduce our inventories by 30%, thus we recover cash flow. It is not negligible.” These quotes out of my case studies show that the primary goal of the implementation of Web-based applications is the achievement of transaction cost efficiencies: cost cutting, time saving, and information integration. But do they achieve such results? Sometimes they do sometime they don’t. In order to understand why, I consider it is necessary to take a different perspective from the one taken until now. Indeed, existing studies on interorganizational information systems focus on economical and strategic issues and consider organizations as opaque entities. First, issues at hand may not be economic or strategic but social or legal. Next, they neglect that inter-organizational relationships imply a number of long-standing social interactions between individuals of each organization. Moreover, these individuals interpret the mediation project and act taking decision, implementing, or using the mediating technology – that these individuals make sense of the IT mediation project. In the present research, I propose to open the black box of organizations and explore how people sensemaking conditions the achievement of transaction cost benefits and is conditioned by the interorganizational context. My overarching research question is: How do people make sense of the Internet mediation of long-standing interorganizational relationships?

Social intranets have over the last few years gained momentum in popularity and are rapidly being implemented in organizations around the world. Research is mainly limited to consist of analyses of use of particular technologies, and is mostly conducted in relation to private organizations. This thesis provides an analysis of the implementation and use of a social intranet in a public organization. In February 2012, Uppsala municipality (Sweden) implemented their new social intranet Insidan for all their employees. The idea is of enhancing the everyday working context and to increase the participation throughout the organization. Wanda Orlikowski’s theory of the practice lens is applied to situate and understand the role of the intranet. The practice lens is relevant as it acknowledges human agency, context and the technological inscriptions to understand the role of technology in organizations. The findings are further elaborated in relation to Andrew McAfee’s Enterprise 2.0. Interviews with users, management and designers, as well as document analysis are used to extract data in a case study design. The results show that Insidan contains central aspects of what constitutes a social intranet. The practice of Insidan enhances user aspects of communication, collaboration and cooperation. One technological feature, the cooperation room, is especially successful. It is a space wherein user share documents and talk openly in a semi-private environment. However, other tools, like blogs, are not adapted to any significant level. Perceived benefits for personal work is relevant to adoption. Findings on insecurity towards what is appropriate to contribute as content are seen to limit active user participation in conversations. Role models for activity are called for. Users are more confident to converse in closed groups. Thus, social connections and communication are given a new arena, but it often takes place in familiarized circles of people (e.g. project groups, office colleagues). This thesis provides knowledge and insights into an exciting and growing field of research. It also provides important insights from an implementation in a public organization – a context not extensively investigated.

“We provide a solution that allows saving 15 to 20 euros per invoice.It is very important in a strategy of service and cost reductions for our customers and for us.”<p><p>“For us, it is very important as we generally reduce our inventories by 30%, thus we recover cash flow. It is not negligible.”<p><p>These quotes out of my case studies show that the primary goal of the implementation of Web-based applications is the achievement of transaction cost efficiencies: cost cutting, time saving, and information integration. But do they achieve such results? Sometimes they do sometime they don’t. In order to understand why, I consider it is necessary to take a different perspective from the one taken until now. <p><p>Indeed, existing studies on interorganizational information systems focus on economical and strategic issues and consider organizations as opaque entities. First, issues at hand may not be economic or strategic but social or legal. Next, they neglect that inter-organizational relationships imply a number of long-standing social interactions between individuals of each organization. Moreover, these individuals interpret the mediation project and act taking decision, implementing, or using the mediating technology – that these individuals make sense of the IT mediation project. In the present research, I propose to open the black box of organizations and explore how people sensemaking conditions the achievement of transaction cost benefits and is conditioned by the interorganizational context. My overarching research question is: How do people make sense of the Internet mediation of long-standing interorganizational relationships?<p> / Doctorat en sciences de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished