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Technological frames: making sense of information technology in organizations
Open accessAbstract
In this article, we build on and extend research into the cognitions and values of users and designers by proposing a systematic approach for examining the underlying assumptions, expectations, and knowledge that people have about technology. Such interpretations of technology (which we call technological frames) are central to understanding technological development, use, and change in organizations. We suggest that where the technological frames of key groups in organizations—such as managers, technologists, and users— are significantly different, difficulties and conflict around the development, use, and change of technology may result. We use the findings of an empirical study to illustrate how the nature, value, and use of a groupware technology were interpreted by various organizational stakeholders, resulting in outcomes that deviated from those expected. We argue that technological frames offer an interesting and useful analytic perspective for explaining an anticipating actions and meanings that are not easily obtained with other theoretical lenses.
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“In addition, ref. [118] suggests that within this TLC framework, 'technological frames' which capture how stakeholders categorize a technology relative to other technologies can be understood.”
From Digitisation and the Circular Economy: A Review of Current Research and Future Trends (2018) · cites this paper as [118]
In the citing paper
“Following this, ref. [118] shows that in adopting a new technology at the time, Lotus Notes, users imposed their assumptions about familiar technologies on the new product, where they made comparisons with word processing and spreadsheet programs.”
From Digitisation and the Circular Economy: A Review of Current Research and Future Trends (2018) · cites this paper as [118]
In the citing paper
“The same research results show that in the same firm, variation in framing caused different Lotus Notes implementations.”
From Digitisation and the Circular Economy: A Review of Current Research and Future Trends (2018) · cites this paper as [118]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Orlikowski, W. J., & Gash, D. C.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (US)
- ORCID
- Orlikowski, Wanda J.
- Venue
- ACM Transactions on Information Systems
- Published
- 1994-04
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 174-207
- ISSN
- 1046-8188 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-2868
- OpenAlex
- W2127089424
- Cited by
- 1,736
- References
- 96
- Citations by year
- 2026: 58 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 65 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 53 · 2015: 74 · 2014: 81 · 2013: 87 · 2012: 73
- FWCI
- 71.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- ACM Transactions on Information Systems (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Keywords
- technological frames, technology value, organizational stakeholders, groupware, technology adoption, stakeholder conflict
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