E-Government institutionalizing practices of a land registration mapping system

Delivering on the promise of E-Government (E-Gov) to implement IT-enabled changes implies that processes and service delivery modifications are incorporated into the routine operations of the public sector. This is referred to as institutionalization. In contrast, institutionalizing E-Gov involves practices through which system functionalities and procedures come to assume an embedded status within the organizational environment. Prior research has focused on institutionalization but offered few clues on these institutionalizing practices of E-Gov within organizations. Our theoretical framework posits that institutionalizing of E-Gov can be analyzed as situated practices. We apply this conceptual approach to analyze the case of an 11-year implementation of a strategic E-Gov project that automated the land mapping registration services and their delivery to the public. We examine institutionalization outcomes as construction of actor-networks and institutionalizing practices as enactment of actor-network reconfiguration. Our findings provide evidence of black-box status for some E-Gov functions and situated institutionalization for others. We thereby extend the research on E-Gov post-adoption and post-implementation behaviors by providing early evidence of generic institutionalization measures and institutionalizing practices. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.