Abstract
Information systems success and failure are among the most prominent streams in IS research. Explanations of why some IS fulfill their expectations, whereas others fail, are complex and multi-factorial. Despite the efforts to understand the underlying factors, the IS failure rate remains stubbornly high. A Panel session was held at the IFIP Working Group 8.6 conference in Bangalore in 2013 which forms the subject of this Special Issue. Its aim was to reflect on the need for new perspectives and research directions, to provide insights and further guidance for managers on factors enabling IS success and avoiding IS failure. Several key issues emerged, such as the need to study problems from multiple perspectives, to move beyond narrow considerations of the IT artifact, and to venture into underexplored organizational contexts, such as the public sector.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Adams, D. A., Nelson, R. R., & Todd, P. A. (1992). Percieved usefulness, ease of use, and usage of information technology: a replication. MIS Quarterly, 16(2), 227–247.
Al-Ahmad, W., Al-Fagih, K., Khanfar, K., Alsamara, K., Abuleil, S., & Abu-Salem, H. (2009). A taxonomy of an it project failure: root causes. International Management Review, 5(1), 93–104.
Alter, S. (2003). 18 reasons why IT-reliant work systems should replace “the IT artifact” as the core subject matter of the IS field. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 12(23), 366–395.
Alter, S. (2008). Defining information systems as work systems: implications for the IS field. European Journal of Information Systems, 17(5), 448–469.
Alter, S. (2013). Work system theory: overview of core concepts, extensions, and challenges for the future. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 14(2), 1.
Avison, D., & Wilson, D. (2002). IT failure and the collapse of One. Tel. In Information Systems: Springer, pp. 31–46.
Bamberger, P. (2008). Beyond contextualization: using context theories to narrow the macro–micro gap in management research. Academy of Management Journal, 51(5), 839–846.
Barclay, C. (2008). Towards an integrated measurement of is project performance: the project performance scorecard. Information Systems Frontiers, 10(3), 331–345.
Barker, T., & Frolick, M. N. (2003). ERP implementation failure: a case study. Information Systems Management, 20(4), 43–49.
Barki, H., & Hartwick, J. (1994). User participation, conflict, and conflict resolution: the mediating roles of influence. Information Systems Research, 5(4), 422–438.
Benbasat, I., & Barki, H. (2007). Quo Vadis Tam? Journal of the Association for Information Systems, (8:3), pp. 211–218.
Bergman, M., King, J. L., & Lyytinen, K. (2002). Large scale requirements analysis revisited: the need for understanding the political ecology of requirements engineering. Requirements Engineering, 7(3), 152–171.
Beynon-Davies, P. (1995). Information systems ‘failure’: the case of the London ambulance service’s computer aided despatch project. European Journal of Information Systems, 4(3), 171–184.
Beynon-Davies, P. (1999). Human error and information systems failure: the case of the London ambulance service computer-aided despatch system project. Interacting with Computers, 11(6), 699–720.
Bhattacherjee, A., & Hikmet, N. (2007). Physicians’ resistance toward healthcare information technology: a theoretical model and empirical test. European Journal of Information Systems, 16(6), 725–737.
Bignell, V., & Fortune, J. (1984). Understanding Systems Failure: Manchester University Press.
Brown, A. D. (1998). Narrative, politics and legitimacy in an it implementation. Journal of Management Studies, 35(1), 35–58.
Bruque, S., Moyano, J., & Eisenberg, J. (2008). “Individual adaptation to it-induced change: the role of social networks,”. Journal of Management Information Systems, 25(3), 177–206.
Bunker, D. J., Kautz, K., & Nguyen, A. (2007). The role of value compatibility in it adoption. Journal of Information Technology, 22, 69–78.
Bunker, D., Levine, L., & Woody, C. (2013). Repertoires of Collaboration for Disaster Management: Negotiating Emergent and Dynamic Systems Success. In proceedings of Grand Successes and Failures in IT IFIP WG8.6 Working Conference Bangalore, India June 27 – 29, 2013.
Burton-Jones, A., & Gallivan, M. J. (2007). Toward a deeper understanding of system usage in organizations: a multilevel perspective. MIS Quarterly, 31(4), 657–679.
Bussen, W., & Myers, M. D. (1997). Executive information system failure: a New Zealand case study. Journal of Information Technology, 12(2), 145–153.
Caseley, J. (2004). Public sector reform and corruption: card facade in Andhra Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(11), 1151–1156.
Cerpa, N., & Verner, J. M. (2009). Why did your project fail? Communications of the ACM, 52(12), 130–134.
Clegg, S. (1989). Frameworks of power. London: Sage Publications.
Delone, W. H., & McLean, E. R. (2003). The delone and Mclean model of information systems success: a ten-year update. Journal of Management Information Systems, 19(4), 9–30.
DeLone, W. H., & McLean, E. R. (1992). Information systems success: the quest for the dependent variable. Information Systems Research, 3(1), 60–95.
Devaraj, S., & Kohli, R. (2003). Performance impacts of information technology: is actual usage the missing link? Management Science, 49(3), 273–289.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Weerakkody, V., & Janssen, M. (2011). Moving towards maturity: challenges to successful e-government implementation and diffusion. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, 42(4), 11–22.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Kapoor, K. K., Williams, M. D., & Williams, J. (2013a). RFID systems in libraries: an empirical examination of factors affecting system use and user satisfaction. International Journal of Information Management, 33(2), 367–377.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Ravichandran, K., Williams, M. D., Miller, S., Lal, B., Antony, G. V., & Kartik, M. (2013b). “IS/it project failures: A review of the extant literature for deriving a taxonomy of failure factors,” in grand successes and failures in it. In Y. K. Dwivedi, H. Z. Henriksen, D. Wastell, & R. De’ (Eds.), Public and private sectors (pp. 73–88). Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Dwivedi, Y.K., Henriksen, H.Z., Wastell, D., & De’, R. (eds.). (2013c). Grand Successes and Failures in IT: Public and Private Sectors. Springer.
Elbanna, A. R. (2007). Implementing an integrated system in a socially Dis-integrated enterprise: a critical view of ERP enabled integration. Information Technology and People, 20(2), 121–139.
Elbanna, A. (2012). Top management support in multiple-project environments: an in-practice view. European Journal of Information Systems, 22(3), 278–294.
Ewusi-Mensah, K. (2003). Software development failures: anatomy of abandoned projects: The MIT press.
Fitzgerald, G., & Russo, N. L. (2005). The turnaround of the London ambulance service computer-aided despatch system (LASCAD). European Journal of Information Systems, 14(3), 244–257.
Gable, G. G., Sedera, D., & Chan, T. (2008). Re-conceptualizing information system success: the is-impact measurement model. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 9(7), 1–32.
Garrity, E. J. (2001). Synthesizing user centered and designer centered is development approaches using general systems theory. Information Systems Frontiers, 3(1), 107–121.
Gefen, D., & Straub, D.W. (2000). The Relative Importance of Perceived Ease of Use in Information Systems Adoption: A Study of E-Commerce Adoption. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 1 (1), Article 8. Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol1/iss1/8
Gibson, C. F. (2003). IT-enabled business change: an approach to understanding and managing risk. MIS Quarterly Executive, 2(2), 104–115.
Ginzberg, M. J. (1981). Key recurrent issues in the mis implementation process. MIS Quarterly, 5(2), 47–59.
Glass, E. L. (2005). It failure rates: 70 % or 10–15 %? IEEE Software, 22(3), 112–111.
Heeks, R. (2002). Information systems and developing countries: failure, success, and local improvisations. The Information Society, 18(2), 101–112.
Heeks, R. (2006). Health information systems: failure, success and improvisation. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 75(2), 125–137.
Hendricks, K. B., Singhal, V. R., & Stratman, J. K. (2007). The impact of enterprise systems on corporate performance: a study of ERP, SCM, and CRM system implementations. Journal of Operations Management, 25(1), 65–82.
Hirschheim, R., & Newman, M. (1988). Information systems and user resistance: theory and practice. The Computer Journal, 31(5), 398–408.
Igbaria, M., & Tan, M. (1997). The consequences of information technology acceptance on subsequent individual performance. Information and Management, 32(3), 113–121.
Iivari, J. (2005). An empirical test of the DeLone-McLean model of information system success. ACM SIGMIS Database, 36(2), 8–27.
Jasperson, J. S., Carte, T. A., Saunders, C. S., Butler, B. S., Croes, H. J. P., & Zheng, W. (2002). Review: power and information technology research: a Metatriangulation review. MIS Quarterly, 26(4), 397–459.
Johns, G. (2006). The essential impact of context on organizational behavior. Academy of Management Review, 31(2), 386–408.
Kappelman, L. A., McKeeman, R., & Zhang, L. (2006). Early warning signs of it project failure: the dominant dozen. Information Systems Management, 23(4), 31–36.
Keil, M., Cule, P. E., Lyytinen, K., & Schmidt, R. C. (1998). A framework for identifying software project risks. Communications of the ACM, 41(11), 76–83.
Kirsch, L. J., Sambamurthy, V., Ko, D.-G., & Purvis, R. L. (2002). Controlling information systems development projects: the view from the client. Management Science, 48(4), 484–498.
Klaus, H. (2000). What is ERP? Information Systems Frontiers, 2(2), 141–162.
Klaus, T., & Blanton, J. E. (2010). User resistance determinants and the psychological contract in enterprise system implementations. European Journal of Information Systems, 19(6), 625–636.
Klein, H. K., & Myers, M. D. (1999). A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems. MIS Quarterly, 23(1), 67–93.
Koch, C. (2002). Supply Chain: Hershey's Bittersweet Lesson. CIO Magazin, November, 15, online available: http://www.cio.com/article/31518/Supply_Chain_Hershey_s_Bittersweet_Lesson (last access: 2nd Oct. 2013)
Koch, C. (2004). Nike Rebounds: How (and Why) Nike Recovered from Its Supply Chain Disaster. CIO Magazin, June 15, online available: http://www.cio.com/article/32334/Nike_Rebounds_How_and_Why_Nike_Recovered_from_Its_Supply_Chain_Disaster (last access: 2nd Oct. 2013)
Koch, C. (2007). When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects. CIO Magazin, April, 2, online available: http://www.cio.com/article/101505/When_Bad_Things_Happen_to_Good_Projects (last access: 2nd Oct. 2013)
Kroenke, D., Bunker, D., & Wilson, D. (2012). Experiencing MIS (2nd ed.). Sydney: Pearson Australia.
Kulkarni, U., Ravindran, S., & Freeze, R. (2007). A knowledge management success model: theoretical development and empirical validation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 23(3), 309–347.
Larsen, K. R. T. (2003). A taxonomy of antecedents of information systems success: variable analysis studies. Journal of Management Information Systems, 20(2), 169–246.
Laumer, S., & Eckhardt, A. (2012). “Why do people reject technologies: a review of user resistance theories,” in Information Systems Theory (Eds Dwivedi et al.): Springer, pp. 63–86.
Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Trunk, N. (2010). Do as your parents say? - analyzing it adoption influencing factors for full and under age applicants. Information Systems Frontiers, 12(2), 169–183.
Laumer, S., Maier, C., Weitzel, T., & Eckhardt, A. (2012). The Implementation of Large-Scale Information Systems in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises–A Case Study of Work-and Health-Related Consequences in 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Science (HICSS), pp. 3159–3168.
Laumer, S., Beimborn, D., Maier, C., & Weinert, C. (2013). Enterprise content management. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 5(6), 449–452.
Lawrence, T. B., & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutions and institutional work. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, T. B. Lawrence, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 215–254). London: Sage Publications.
Lee, J. C., & Myers, M. D. (2004). Dominant actors, political agendas, and strategic shifts over time: a critical ethnography of an enterprise systems implementation. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 13(4), 355–374.
Lee, J., Wyner, G. M., & Pentland, B. T. (2008). Process grammar as a tool for business process design. MIS Quarterly, 32, 757–778.
Linberg, K. R. (1999). Software developer perceptions about software project failure: a case strudy. Journal of Systems and Software, 49(2–3), 177–192.
Lowry, P., Karuga, G., & Richardson, V. (2007). Assessing leading institutions, faculty, and articles in premier information systems research journals. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 20(16), 142–203.
Lucas, H. C. (1975). Why information systems fail. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lyytinen, K., & Hirschheim, R. (1988). Information systems failures—a survey and classification of the empirical literature. In Oxford surveys in information technology, pp. 257–309.
Madon, S. (2005). Governance lessons from the experience of Telecentres in Kerala. European Journal of Information Systems, 14, 401–416.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2012). Online Social Networks as a Source and Symbol of Stress: An Empirical Analysis, In proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Orlando (FL).
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2013). Analyzing the impact of HRIS implementations on HR personnel's job satisfaction and turnover intention. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 22(3), 193–207.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2014). Giving too much social support: social overload on social networking sites. Forthcoming in European Journal of Information Systems. doi:10.1057/ejis.2014.3.
Markus, M. L. (1983). Power, politics and mis implementation. Communications of the ACM, 26(6), 430–444.
Markus, M. L. (2004). Technochange management: using IT to drive organizational change. Journal of Information Technology, 19(1), 4–20.
Markus, M. L., Tanis, C., & Fenema, P. C. (2000). Multisite ERP Implementations. Communications of the ACM, 43(3), 42–46.
Martinsons, M., Davison, R., & Tse, D. (1999). The balanced scorecard: a foundation for the strategic management of information systems. Decision Support Systems, 25(1), 71–88.
McGrath, K. (2002). The Golden Circle: a way of arguing and acting about technology in the London Ambulance Service. European Journal of Information Systems, 11(4), 251–266.
McKinney, V., Yoon, K., & Mariam-Zahedi, F. (2002). The measurement of web-customer satisfaction: an expectation and disconfirmation approach. Information Systems Research, 13(3), 296–315.
Melville, N., Kraemer, K., & Gurbaxani, V. (2004). Review: information technology and organizational performance: an integrative model of it business value. MIS Quarterly, 28(2), 283–322.
Mohr, L. B. (1982). Explaining organizational behavior (Vol. 1). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Myers, M. D. (1994). A disaster for everyone to see: an interpretive analysis of a failed is project. Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, 4(4), 185–201.
Nelson, R. R. (2007). IT project management: infamous failures, classic mistakes, and best practices. MIS Quarterly Executive, 6(2), 67–78.
Orlikowski, W. J. (2010). The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34(1), 125–141.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Robey, D. (1991). Information technology and the structuring of organizations. Information Systems Research, 2(2), 143–169.
Pan, G., Hackney, R., & Pan, S. L. (2008). Information systems implementation failure: insights from prism. International Journal of Information Management, 28(4), 259–269.
Petter, S., DeLone, W., & McLean, E. (2008). Measuring information systems success: models, dimensions, measures, and interrelationships. European Journal of Information Systems, 17(3), 236–263.
Petter, S., DeLone, W., & McLean, E. R. (2013). Information systems success: the quest for the independent variables. Journal of Management Information Systems, 29(4), 7–62.
Pettigrew, A. M., Woodman, R. W., & Cameron, K. S. (2001). Studying organizational change and development: challenges for future research. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 697–713.
Pollock, N., & Williams, R. (2009). The sociology of a market analysis tool: how industry analysts sort vendors and organize markets. Information and Organization, 19, 129–151.
Qumer Gill A & Bunker D (2011). Conceptualization of a Context Aware Cloud Adaptation (CACA) Framework. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cloud and Green Computing CGC 2011, Sydney, Australia, 14th December 2011
Rai, A., Lang, S. S., & Welker, R. B. (2002). Assessing the validity of is success models: an empirical Testand theoretical analysis. Information Systems Research, 13(1), 50–69.
Rana, N. P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Williams, M. D. (2013a). Evaluating the validity of is success models for e-government research: an empirical test and integrated model. International Journal of Electronic Government Research, 9(3), 1–22.
Rana, N. P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Williams, M. D. (2013b). Analysing challenges, barriers and critical success factors of e-Government adoption research. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 7(2), 177–198.
Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K., & Williams, M.D. (2013c). A Meta-Analysis of Existing Research on Citizen Adoption of E-Government. Information Systems Frontiers, available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10796-013-9431-z
Ravishankar, M. N. (2013). Public ICT innovations: a strategic ambiguity perspective. Journal of Information Technology. doi:10.1057/jit.2013.18.
Sabherwal, R., Jeyaraj, A., & Chowa, C. (2006). Information system success: individual and organizational determinants. Management Science, 52(12), 1849–1864.
Sauer, C. (1993). Why information systems fail: a case study approach: Alfred Waller Ltd., Publishers.
Schmidt, R., Lyytinen, K., Keil, M., & Cule, P. (2001). Identifying software project risks: an international Delphi study. Journal of Management Information Systems, 17(4), 5–36.
Scott, J., & Vessey, I. (2000). Implementing enterprise resource planning systems: the role of learning from failure. Information Systems Frontiers, 2(2), 213–232.
Seddon, P. B. (1997). A respecification and extension of the DeLone and McLean model of IS success. Information Systems Research, 8(3), 240–253.
Seddon, P. B., Staples, S., Patnayakuni, R., & Bowtell, M. (1999). Dimensions of information systems success. Communication of the AIS, 2, Article 20. Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol2/iss1/20
Shareef, M. A., Kumar, U., Kumar, V., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2011). E-government adoption model (gam): differing service maturity levels. Government Information Quarterly, 28(1), 17–35.
Sherer, S., Kohli, R., & Baron, A. (2003). Complementary investment in change management and it investment payoff. Information Systems Frontiers, 5(3), 321–333.
Soh, C., Kein, S. S., & Tay-Yap, J. (2000). Enterprise resource planning: cultural fit and misfits: is erp a universal solution? Communications of the ACM, 43(4), 47–51.
Srivastava, S. C. (2011). Is e-government providing the promised returns?: a value framework for assessing e-government impact. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 5(2), 107–113.
Srivastava, S. C., & Teo, T. S. H. (2007). E-government payoffs: evidence from cross-country data. Journal of Global Information Management, 15(4), 20–40.
Srivastava, S. C., & Teo, T. S. H. (2008). The relationship between e-government and national competitiveness: the moderating influence of environmental factors. Communications of the AIS, 23, 73–94.
Srivastava, S. C., & Teo, T. S. H. (2009). Citizen trust development for e-government adoption and usage: insights from young adults in Singapore. Communications of the AIS, 25, 359–378.
Srivastava, S. C., & Teo, T. S. H. (2010). E-government, e-business and national economic performance. Communications of the AIS, 26, 267–286.
Srivastava, S. C., & Teo, T. S. H. (2011). Development and impact of e-government: the intertwined role of e-commerce from a cross-country stakeholder perspective. Electronic Government: An International Journal, 8(2–3), 144–163.
Srivastava, S. C., Mathur, S. S., & Teo, T. S. H. (2007a). Modernization of passenger reservation system: Indian railway's dilemma. Journal of Information Technology, 22, 432–439.
Srivastava, S.C., Teo, T.S.H., & Chandra, S. (2007b). E-Government and Corruption: A Cross-Country Analysis. Proceedings of the Twenty Eighth International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2007), December 9–12, 2007, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Srivastava, S. C., Mathur, S. S., & Teo, T. S. H. (2009). Competing technology options and stakeholder interests for tracking freight railcars in Indian railways. Journal of Information Technology, 24, 392–400.
Strong, D. M., & Volkoff, O. (2010). Understanding organization-enterprise system fit: a path to theorizing the information technology artifact. MIS Quarterly, 34(4), 731–756.
Teo, T. S. H., Srivastava, S. C., & Li, J. (2008). Trust and e-government success: an empirical study. Journal of Management Information Systems, 25(3), 99–131.
Urbach, N., Smolnik, S., & Riempp, G. (2009). The state of research on information systems success. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 1(4), 315–325.
Van Der Westhuizen, D., & Fitzgerald, E.P. (2005). Defining and Measuring Project Success," European Conference on IS Management, Leadership and Governance: Reading, United Kingdom: Academic Conferences Limited, pp. 157–163.
Volkoff, O., & Strong, D. M. (2013). Critical realism and affordances: theorizing it-associated organizational change process. MIS Quarterly, 37(3), 819–834.
Volkoff, O., Strong, D. M., & Elmes, M. B. (2007). Technological embeddedness and organizational change. Organization Science, 18, 832–848.
Wailgum, T. (2005). University ERP: Big Mess on Campus. CIO Magazin, May 1, online available: http://www.cio.com/article/107706/University_ERP_Big_Mess_on_Campus (last access: 2nd Oct. 2013)
Wailgum, T. (2009). 10 Famous ERP Disasters, Dustups and Disappointments. CIO Magazin, March 24, online available: http://www.cio.com/article/486284/10_Famous_ERP_Disasters_Dustups_and_Disappointments?page=1&taxonomyId=3009 (last access: 2nd Oct. 2013)
Wallace, L., Keil, M., & Rai, A. (2004). Understanding software project risk: a cluster analysis. Information & Management, 42(1), 115–125.
Walsham, G. (2012). Are we making a better world with ICTS? Reflections on a future agenda for the is field. Journal of Information Technology, 27(2), 87–93.
Yeo, K. T. (2002). Critical failure factors in information system projects. International Journal of Project Management, 20(3), 241–246.
Zachariadis, M., Scott, S., & Barrett, M. (2013). Methodological implications of critical realism for mixed-methods research. MIS Quarterly, 37(3), 855–879.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dwivedi, Y.K., Wastell, D., Laumer, S. et al. Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions. Inf Syst Front 17, 143–157 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-y