Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2014, Hawaii, January 6-9.

1. Steering Institutionalization
Through Institutional Work:
The Case of an eProcurement System
in Indonesian Local Government
Fathul Wahid1,2
& Maung K .Sein1,3
1
Department of Information Systems, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway
2
Department of Informatics, Universitas Islam Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
3
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
fathul.wahid@uii.ac.id & maung.k.sein@uia.no
HICSS 2014, 6-9 January 2014
UNIVERSITAS ISLAM INDONESIA

2. Background: problem formulation
• Some eGovernment initiatives are successfully implemented
• ... Others are not. Why?
• The influential role of institutional entrepreneurs have been
highlighted
• only a few studies have examined how they do it
• Institutional entrepreneurs
• purposeful actors with resources, skills (social and political) and social
position to lead change (Dacin et al., 2002)
• initiate divergent changes, actively participate in implementation of these
changes
• thus transform existing institutions or to create new ones (Battilana et al.,
2009)
2

3. Background: theoretical
• Call for research
• to examine role of individuals in the implementation of information systems,
through a fine-grained analysis of the situated practices (Avgerou, 2000;
Currie, 2009; Suddaby, 2010)
• to study institutionalization using an historical approach by focusing on its
process rather on its outcome (Mignerat & Rivard, 2009)
• Specifically in public sector (Weerakkody et al., 2009)
• Our research question
How do the institutional entrepreneurs carry out institutional work
during the institutionalization process of a system?
• Specific system studied: eProcurement System in the Indonesian public sector
• Institutional entrepreneur studied: Mayor of the city of Yogyakarta
3

4. eProcurement
efinition
• “The use of integrated (commonly web-based) communication systems for the
conduct of part or all of the purchasing process; a process that may
incorporate stages from the initial need identification by users, through search,
sourcing, negotiation, ordering, receipt and post-purchase review” (Croom &
Brandon-Jones, 2007, p. 295).
enefits of eProcurement systems
• a more efficient procurement process, cost reduction, and improved internal
service and status of the purchasing function (Croom & Brandon-Jones, 2007;
Henriksen & Mahnke, 2005; Transparency International, 2008).
4

5. eProcurement in the public sector
dditional benefits
• enhanced transparency, better access for non-local bidders, better access for
SMEs, corruption avoidance (Transparency International, 2008)
dditional complexity (Boyne, 2002; Henriksen & Mahnke, 2005;
Mougeot & Naegelen, 2005)
• must adhere to rigid regulations and depends on a political decision
• transparency becomes basic requirement
• involves a variety of stakeholders with different and often conflicting agendas
• often implemented under a unified public procurement plan that involves
different government agencies (such as different departments)
onsequently, institutionalization of such systems becomes 5

6. Institutional work
efinition
• “The sets of practices through which individual and collective actors create,
maintain and disrupt the institutions of organizational fields” (Lawrence &
Suddaby, 2006, p. 219).
6
Creating Maintaining Disrupting
Disconnecting sanctions
Disassociating moral
foundations
Undermining assumptions
and beliefs
Advocacy
Defining
Vesting
Constructing identities
Changing normative
associations
Constructing normative
networks
Mimicry
Theorizing
Educating
Enabling work
Policing
Deterring
Valourizing and demonizing
Mythologizing
Embedding and routinizing

7. Type of institutional work
Type Description Examples
Cultural Practices that stimulate common
ways of acting and behaving
(Perkmann & Spicer, 2008)
Constructing normative networks
Constructing identities
Changing normative associations
Political Involves the enactment of rules and
regulations through exercise of
coercive power (Lawrence &
Suddaby, 2006)
Advocacy
Defining
Vesting
Technical Involves the construction of ‘mental
models’ and shared world views
(Scott, 2008)
Theorizing
Standardizing
Mimicry
Educating
7

8. etrospective interpretive case study
esearch sites: the city of Yogyakarta,
Indonesia
ata
• Interviews with key players (11 informants)
• Documents (reports. slides, news in the media,
websites)
• Observations
ata analysis
Research method
8
Yogyakarta

9. The timeline
9

10. Findings: Identified institutional work
Stage Institutional work Type
Disrupting Disassociating moral foundation* Cultural
Creating Changing normative associations* Cultural
Counterfactual thinking** Cultural
Convening*** Cultural
Connecting to the macro-level discourse** Political
Aligning with highly legitimate actors** Political
Educating* Technical
Maintaining Policing* Political
Leveraging** Political
Deterring* Political
Enabling work* Technical
Embedding and routinizing* Technical
10
Notes: * Lawrence and Suddaby (2006)
** Dorado (2005)
*** Tracey et al. (2011)

11. Findings: Patterns
ultural institutional work was important at the beginning of
institutionalization process
• to bring divergent change
• to create a collective awareness and to develop a new shared identity
olitical institutional work was important at
• creating stage to facilitate a smooth start by minimizing resistance and getting
broadest possible support
• maintaining stages to make other stakeholders enrol in the practices and
simultaneously to deter others
echnical institutional work was important
• for maintaining the new institution 11

12. Conclusion – role of the entrepreneur
he involvement of the dominant actor (i.e. the mayor)
gradually diminished at the later stages of the
institutionalized process – a strong indication that the
practice has become routinized and institutionalized
12

13. Contributions of the study
llustrates that the notion of institutional work provides a good
insight into what institutional entrepreneurs do in the
institutionalization process
• builds upon previous studies by Lawrence and Suddaby (2006), Tracey et al.
(2011), and Dorado (2005) to develop a sharper interpretive lens
dentifies a set of specific institutional work carried out by
institutional entrepreneurs in the institutionalization process
or practice, offers insights about possible strategies for
implementing an initiative
• ‘values instilling’, ‘careful exercise of political power’, ‘building collective 13

14. For your attention
Thanks
Tusen takk
Terima kasih
Matur nuwun
Questions?
Spørsmål?
Pertanyaan?
Fathul Wahid Maung K. Sein
fathul.wahid@uii.ac.id maung.k.sein@uia.no
14