Abstract

Despite recent reports that suggest growing evidence of a higher rate of information systems project success, experts have warned against complacency over the risks associated with project failure. While IS project failure has been attracting constant attention in recent years, IS project abandonment—which is a subset of the larger organizational issues of IS failure—has been largely ignored. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the project abandonment phenomenon. We undertook a case study of an abandoned electronic procurement project to investigate the coalition dynamics affecting project abandonment decision-making—an area that is remotely addressed in the project abandonment literature. We found that antecedent conditions, level of coping with uncertainty, level of substitutability, and level of centrality are key issues in the coalition dynamics that influence project abandonment decisions. Research and practical implications of these findings were discussed, and we concluded with a summary of the contributions of this study and a note on its limitations.

Keywords: Information systems project abandonment; Coalition dynamics; Case study approach

Article Outline

1. Introduction

2. An overview of IS project failure and abandonment

2.1. Stakeholders in IS projects

2.2. Identification of coalitions and assessment of their relative power

2.3. A theoretical lens for examining how coalition dynamics affect project abandonment decision-making

3. Research methodology

3.1. Research strategy

3.2. Data collection

3.3. Analysis of data

4. The case of E-PRO

4.1. Antecedent conditions

4.2. The development of E-PRO

5. Case findings

6. Discussion of the coalition dynamics that affected project abandonment decision-making in E-PRO

6.1. Antecedent conditions

6.2. Level of coping with uncertainty

6.3. Level of substitutability

6.4. Level of centrality

7. Implications for research and practice

8. Conclusions and limitations

8.1. Conclusions

8.2. Limitations

Appendix A. Details of the dates of the interviews, the subjects' job titles, the duration of the interviews, and whether a transcript was produced

Appendix B. Excerpts of interview topic guides

References

Vitae