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This study investigates the potential of actor‐network theory (ANT) for theory development on information technology project escalation, a pervasive problem in contemporary organizations. In so doing, the study aims to contribute to the current dialogue on the potential of ANT in the information systems field. While escalation theory has been used to study “runaway” IT projects, two distinct limitations suggest a potential of using ANT: First, there is a need for research that builds process theory on escalation of IT projects. Second, the role of technology as an important factor (or actor) in the shaping of escalation has not been examined. This paper examines a well‐known case study of an IT project disaster, the computerized baggage handling system at Denver International Airport, using both escalation theory and ANT. A theory‐comparative analysis then shows how each analysis contributes differently to our knowledge about dysfunctional IT projects and how the differences between the analyses mirror characteristics of the two theories. ANT is found to offer a fruitful theoretical addition to escalation research and several conceptual extensions of ANT in the context of IT project escalation are proposed: embedded actor‐networks, host actor‐networks, swift translation and Trojan actor‐networks.

The popularity and explosive growth of the Internet during the past few years have convinced many countries to take a closer look at its potential for aiding economic development. The existing literature presents an aggregate story of success, but the ways in which different countries are adopting these new technologies have received little critical attention. This empirical study of four Latin American countries ‐ Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru ‐ delineates a five‐phase development process during which each country sustained the momentum of its evolving strategy, grew in competence to forge technological solutions, and gained access to the Internet. The four countries’ original goals changed over time, but through experience they perceived new opportunities and established evolving Internet strategies that form the bases of new technological services provided at the national level.

Reviews the influence of Giddens’ structuration theory on information technology and implementation studies, highlighting how the interaction between the technology and the wider social setting have often been neglected. Offers Giddens’ conception of plural structural rules and resources as a possible framework for analyzing this interaction. Uses the proposed framework to analyze the introduction of computers into an agro‐industrial organization in a less‐developed country. Shows that different social and organizational conditions influence the process of IT implementation, but at the same time this process reinforces or transforms the structural configurations over time. Thus, highlights the role that IT plays in social setting transformation.

In this editorial introduction Allen Lee's definition of the information systems (IS) field is taken as the starting point: “Research in the information systems field examines more than just the technological system, or just the social system, or even the two systems side by side; in addition, it investigates the phenomena that emerge when the two interact” (Lee, A. “Editorial”, MISQ, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2001, p. iii). By emphasizing the last part of this, it is argued that actor‐network theory (ANT) can provide IS research with unique and very powerful tools to help us overcome the current poor understanding of the information technology (IT) artifact (Orlikowski, W. and Iacono, S., “Research commentary: desperately seeking the ‘IT’ in IT research – a call for theorizing the IT artifact”, Information Systems Research, Vol. 10 No. 2, 2001, pp. 121‐34). These tools include a broad range of concepts describing the interwoven relationships between the social.