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A case study of the legitimation process undertaken to gain support for an information system in a Chinese university

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European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

This research examines the legitimation process that was undertaken to gain stakeholder support for the development of a smartcard system for student services at a local university in China. We employed a theoretical framework consisting of Suchman's typology of legitimacy and the Legitimation Activity Model (LAM) for sense-making of the process. We obtained insights into how legitimation of the system was gained, maintained and repaired through the project team's strategic actions. We conceptualized the rotation of legitimation gaining, maintaining and repairing activities in the project and make suggestions for improving the LAM. We emphasize that monitoring and evaluating legitimation is a dynamic, continuous process, involving the concept of legitimation status, and linking the planned actions of legitimation- gaining and responsive actions for legitimation maintaining and repairing. We suggest that to achieve legitimation for information systems, managers should plan strategies to construct and present an appropriate image of the system, in which stakeholders perceive that it meets their needs, and, in addition, closely monitor the status of legitimation granted over a continuous period. This is because legitimation is a ‘fragile flower’ that may wilt if not attended to adequately.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Xu Xiangyang (Changsha University, China) and Wu Kun (Central-Southern University, China) for their support and contribution to this research project. The authors are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K.

    Donal Flynn

  2. Shell International Petroleum Company Ltd, Shell Centre, London, U.K.

    Yongqin Du

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  1. Donal Flynn
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Correspondence to Donal Flynn.

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Flynn, D., Du, Y. A case study of the legitimation process undertaken to gain support for an information system in a Chinese university. Eur J Inf Syst 21, 212–228 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2011.27

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