Rationalizing, probing, understanding: the evolution of the systems adoption field

Previous surveys of the interorganizational systems (IOS) adoption field have developed taxonomic schemes to improve general understanding of the field. This paper instead studies the historical development of the field and describes its evolution in a stage model. In the rationalizing stage researchers tried to discover and communicate reasons for some apparently successful adoptions of IOS. However it soon became clear that IOS adoption was relatively limited and in the probing stage the focus changed to investigating the failure of the promised seamless integration. No unified coherent theoretical account emerged from these studies, so in the understanding stage researchers widened the focus of study to try to develop a richer account of the many complex influences on IOS adoption. The three stages are associated with different objectives, assumptions, theoretical backgrounds and research approaches.