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This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of R/3 users in China which was conducted in Spring 2000. The broad purpose of the study is to identify crucial implementation process and context variables which warrant closer attention in the study of IT-enabled organizational change. As companies display a great variety of ownership structures in China (including state-owned, foreign-invested, and privately-held firms), the role of ownership can be studied in relatively greater depth there than elsewhere. While it turns out that ownership is strongly associated with implementation process characteristics, the association of ownership structures with implementation results is much less pronounced. It was found that project governance, specifically the role and decision making style of the steering committee, can be associated with a broad set of outcome variables after controlling for ownership and other important context factors.

The phenomenon of inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) evolution has not yet been adequately researched and understood. We present and analyse empirical data from a case in which electronic ordering in the Australian pharmaceutical industry evolved over a 30-year period from closed to quasiopen systems. We analyse this revelatory case using a practice-theoretical framework to make visible the phenomenon of IOIS evolution. An essential characteristic of this framework is the distinction between and symmetrical treatment of material, normative and ideational structures within the practices that constitute the IOIS. Against the findings of this case study, we then evaluate two promising models of long-term IS change, namely Porra's (1999) Colonial Systems model and Lyytinen and Newman's (2008) Punctuated Sociotechnical IS Change model. These models are selected as highly elaborated IS exemplars of two classes of theories of organizational change, namely evolutionary and dialectical theories. We find that these two models can only partially explain our findings. Finally, we make suggestions for developing more comprehensive theoretical models within these two classes of IS change theories. In practical terms, our paper shows that the transformation from closed to open IOIS may require adoption of longer time frames than are usually assumed and closer attention to norms and rationales usually neglected in IS projects.

The application of e-ordering systems has brought significant changes to the drug distribution industry in China, but the effects of these changes have remained unclear. Adopting a practice perspective and based on longitudinal data collection using multiple methods, we reveal that the Chinese drug distribution practice has passed through the following three stages: the stage before e-ordering, the transitional stage in which the government attempted to impose a centralised platform, and the current fragmented systems stage. We draw upon the theoretical foundations of the network relations model and the boundary spanning theory developed by Schultze and Orlikowski and Levina and Vaast, respectively, to formulate a taxonomic framework for understanding inter-firm network practices. Applying the framework to explain long-term changes in drug distribution in China, we discover that the practice in the field has evolved from traditional, socially embedded relations to information systems-based, socially embedded relations, while the centralised platform deployed by the government was unable to establish a practice with arm's length relations. Our theoretical work contributes an integrated framework for studying inter-firm practices that explicitly incorporates the presence of inter-organisational information systems. Our empirical findings offer helpful practical insights for facilitating collective efforts toward the innovative use of novel IT in the drug distribution industry in China and in other contexts that are similar.