e framework of information technologies, the original research was focused on the more technical aspects of diffusion (Culnan & Markus, 1987; Eveland & Bikson, 1988) and later on the social and psychological aspects of the diffusion process (Markus, 1994a; 1994b). However, one of the most important issues of research on diffusion of information technologies concerns the topic of power and politics of diffusion and implementation, as it has been initiated by the pioneering work of Rob Kling (1978; 1980) and M. Lynne Markus (1981; 1983). Furthermore, extending this pioneering research to e-mail, Celia Romm and Nava Pliskin (1998; 1999a) have studied the implications of power and politics into computer-mediated communication. As it is remarked by Romm and Pliskin (1998, pp. 83-84), in general, power is polarised in between two conflicting interpretations: a Marxist, critical one and a functionalist, managerial another one. In an attempt to synthesise the literature on organisational poli

Towards the end of the 1980s, the issue of whether IS case research was rigorously conducted was first raised. Benbasat et al. (1987) and Lee (1989) formulated some key recommendations on how to conduct high quality case study research in our field. Since then, qualitative research, in general, and case research in particular, has evolved and grown considerably. For example, researchers from several fields have introduced innovative methods to generate strategies for collecting better data. Many approaches have also been proposed to code, organize, and analyze qualitative data and software packages have been developed and commercialized to support the work of case researchers.

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