查看文章

Beyond studies on IT champion characteristics, there is a paucity of theoreticallybased research on the IT championing process. Using an analytic induction strategy, we employ the Social Capital Theory to better understand how IT champions arise in organizations and how they use different sets of tactics to promote an IT implementation. We conducted five case studies, with a total of 87 interviewees. The initial analysis of two cases reveals evidence in support of the conceptual framework that has been deductively constructed based on the social capital and IT championshiprelated literature. Consistent with analytic induction, a number of new insights have also emerged. Once completed, we expect this study to make several contributions, as it extends our understanding of how different dimensions of social capital are leveraged by IT champions. It also complements existing variance-based models, helping understand better the process by which IT championship-related causal mechanisms occur.