Sociomaterial Practice of Actor-Network in Cooperative Information Systems Development

This study analyzes how the characteristics of information systems appear in cooperatives and what organizational results they have. Advances in technology reveal that information systems are not just mechanical devices or technologies but are social material beings co-constructed with human actors such as developers and users (Law, 2009; Suchman, 2007). This social material perspective on information systems shows that information systems are continuously reconstructed through social material practices of human and non-human actors (Orlikowski, 2010; Orlikowski & Scott, 2015; Scott & Orlikowski, 2014). This paper defines the information system as an actor-network composed of human and non-human actors. It shows through the case of a cooperative in Korea that the social material practices of the actor-network reconstruct the information system. Through the conversion process of the information system, the cooperative information systems were reconstructed into different forms through different social material practices of its members. It formed a multiple information system actor-network. Furthermore, the members do not establish the cooperative's organizational management principle but mix it with the organizational management principle existing before the conversion, so the members perform different practices. Converting the cooperative information system shows that the information system has multiplicity, dynamic, contingent, and indetermination characteristics. When we consider these information system characteristics in the management field, we increase user participation and the effectiveness of information system introduction by being free from the rigidity of technology.