Cultivating a 'Digital Jungle': Toward a Hybrid Governance Perspective on Infrastructure Evolution

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearchpeer-review

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Digital infrastructures (DIs) evolve rather than following planned development trajectories. We know this phenomenon as drift, that is, infrastructures drift from management control. Infrastructure drift has motivated research into infrastructure governance recognizing two governance approaches: top-down and bottom-up. Yet, what happens if an organization engaging in its digital transformation expands its DI following top-down governance while simultaneously introducing elements of bottom-up governance? We study how an industrial manufacturer expanded its DI for collaboration top-down while also giving employees leeway for bottom-up governance. As a result, it found that its digital collaboration infrastructure evolved into-what the informants depicted as-a digital jungle. Theorizing this concept and its emergence, we contribute to research on DIs. Firstly, we provide a framework explaining the manufacturer's DI's evolution into a digital jungle. Secondly, we argue that this concept captures user's perspective on DI evolution signifying the importance for developing a hybrid infrastructure governance perspective.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems - PACIS 2020
EditorsDoug Vogel, Kathy Ning Shen, Pan Shan Ling, Carol Hsu, James Y. L. Thong, Marco De Marco, Moez Limayem, Sean Xin Xu
Number of pages14
PublisherAIS eLibrary
Publication date06.2020
Article number63
ISBN (Print)978-1-7336325-3-9
Publication statusPublished - 06.2020
Externally publishedYes
EventThe Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems - PACIS 2020 - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 22.06.202024.06.2020
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020_recordings/

    Research areas

  • Business informatics - Digital Transformation, Digital Infrastructures, Digital Jungle, Ethnography, Work Infrastructures

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