IS Change Agents in Practice in a US-Chinese Joint Venture

Abstract

This article presents a case study that documents how information systems (IS) principals in China strategically shifted to different change agent roles to accommodate various IS implementation contingencies in the organization. The case concerns a US-Chinese joint venture, located in China. The change agent models hypothesized by Markus and Benjamin (l996) serve as a lens to interpret the case. Based on observations of how these roles emerged in different phases of implementing packaged software, a meta-category called “adaptor” is offered to visualize what the data revealed and to contribute to this emerging research area. Implications for practitioners and researchers are addressed.