Abstract

Although much efforts have been devoted to understanding IS change processes that take place in a single organization, there is very little understanding about the change processes that affect IS decisions and developments across organizations. In this paper we provide a conceptual framework to analyze and explain complex multi-level IS change. To demonstrate the use of the framework we apply it to analyze changes in the domain of eCustoms, as in this domain we find rich examples of multi-level IS changes. The framework combines the work on “motors of change” by Van de Ven and Poole with Pettigrew’s notions of “vertical” and “horizontal” levels of analysis. Based on our case analysis we conclude that the conceptual framework proves to be a useful lens through which to analyze complex multi-level IS change. We propose extensions of the framework by identifying different interaction types between the changes and we outline directions for further research. In this respect, this paper can be seen as a contribution to the existing IOS research on change.

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