This paper draws on the need to understand how mobile technology is implemented and used at the organisational level. IT is a general-purpose technology and therefore its use involves a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity. Moreover, IT vendors and system developers tend to be very unambiguous in their rhetoric about mobile technology opportunities. Therefore, managers have trouble to identify the real scope, the functionality and the impact of new mobile applications. However, these three types of uncertainties need to be handled in change management projects where new information technology is involved. Gradual uncertainty reduction at these three different levels, i.e. what technology can do; will technology work; and will users adopt it, is studied in this paper. This is achieved through an analysis of the implementation process of an information system where mobile terminals are used to give service technicians access to the ERP system at BT Europe, a leading supplier of forklift trucks. The analysis shows how the three levels of uncertainty interact, and how the computerised parts of the information system are complemented by mindful intertwining with the non-computerised communication and manual data processing, in order for the information system to work.

foundations for a zigzag theory structure

In many organizations, the project form of work is central to operations. In product development, software development, business development, construction etc, projects have become the dominant structure for action. Such organizations, where a central part of the work is carried out in the project form, are here referred to as project-intensive organizations. There is a growing research literature

This paper describes the evolution of the mobile communication industry according to the candidates applying for a third generation mobile communication license in Sweden. The next generation mobile communication systems represent not only a shift in technology but also a social and economical issue. A whole industry is about to mutate and the award of licenses to run 3G networks has impacted the development of the mobile industry. The traditional industry profile, characterized by low competition and players involved in activities comprising the whole industry’s value chain, is described here as a pipeline market profile due to its horizontal integration. This paper describes the evolution towards a more vertical-oriented profile with a broader diversity of actors specializing in different segments of the value chain. This research studies the impact of next generation mobile standard on the mobile industry as a whole through the analysis of the applications presented in Sweden to get a 3G license.