The mangle of practice in an ERP implementation: temporal emergence and material knowing

In this Research-in-Progress paper, we explore a practice-based view of Enterprise System (ES) implementation. Drawing on Andrew Pickering’s “Mangle of Practice”, we discuss how an Enterprise System becomes a workable system over time through a dialectic of resistance and accommodation. Based on a longitudinal study of an ES implementation project in a global IT organization located in the U.S, we identified the temporal dimensions of an ES that emerged as a result of organizational practice. We further explore how activities of knowing are conducted through organizational practice. The study indicates some promising contributions. First, the study will contribute to IS research by offering a novel view that allows IS researchers to understand ES implementation as a cultural and historical practice. Second, the study will contribute to IS methodology by showing how a longitudinal research study is powerful to study ES implementation when we adopt a practice-based view. Third, the study will contribute to knowledge management literature by especially focusing on how the materiality of technology plays an important role in knowing activities in ES implementation projects. Finally, the study will contribute to practitioner research by bringing back managerial attention to ‘practice’ and explains how bringing attention to organizational practice is important in ES implementation.