Software and Organisations: The Biography of the Enterprise-Wide System or How SAP Conquered the World (Routledge Studies in Technology, Work and Organizations) - Hardcover

Pollock, Neil; Williams, Robin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415403979 ISBN 13: 9780415403979

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

This is the first book that addresses the genesis and career of the modern day enterprise system in a comprehensive and robust manner. It does so through setting out a new approach for the study of packaged solutions and presents novel empirical studies based on in-depth ethnographic and longitudinal research conducted within supplier organisations and other relevant sites. The authors shift the debate within the social study of information systems, from one that is primarily focused on ‘implementation studies’, to one that follows software as it evolves, matures and crosses organisational boundaries. Through tracing and comparing the ‘biography’ of a number of software systems the authors develop a new vocabulary for the dynamics that surround standardised software.

Original in its approach, this book draws on a number of ethnographic studies in supplier organisations, user settings, user forums, and applies theories from the Sociology of Technology, Technology Studies, Innovation Studies, and beyond. As such it will be of interest across all of these subject areas and to researchers from the wider fields of Information Systems and Business Studies.

About this title

About the Author

Neil Pollock is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh where he teaches and researches on the sociology of information technologies.

Robin Williams is Professor of Social Research on Technology and Director at the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415403979
• ISBN 13: 9780415403979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368