Carsten Sørensen Enterprise Mobility: Tiny Technology with Global Impact on Work Palgrave,  September 2011 ISBN 978-0-230-23607-3

With billions of mobile phones, hundreds of millions of notebook computers and a range of other ubiquitous information technology, it is difficult to locate a contemporary organization that does not in some way rely on mobile information technology. However, the essential challenges related to the organizational use of such technology (enterprise mobility) have so far only been subjected to sporadic research efforts. This book provides an in-depth exploration of the main challenges mobile workers are faced with when engaging in the mutual adjustment of technological opportunities and organizational realities. As the technology in question offers uniquely intimate bonds with the user, the analysis emphasizes our understanding of such relationships, and distills the core characteristics of mobile information technology. It offers a comprehensive view of the challenges of resolving the paradox of facilitating fluid working arrangements while cultivating interaction, collaboration and control barriers.

Jannis Kallinikos Governing Through Technology: Information Artefacts and Social Practice Palgrave, November 2010 ISBN 978-0-230-28088-5

Governing Through Technology is about the influence of information on human behaviour and the institutional contexts within which human behaviour is articulated as expert practice. The book traces the pervasive nature of technological information and the ways it is produced and disseminated by an expanding, increasingly subtler and frequently invisible ecology of interlinked technologies and artefacts. Current technologies of communication and computing, the author claims, infiltrate most aspects of contemporary living, growing to a complex regulative framework that engulfs human pursuits, and shapes and governs human initiatives at the workplace and
beyond.

In all these qualities, information transcends its traditional role as a companion to human pursuits and becomes a pervasive platform of new social, organizational and economic relations.

Ian O. Angell and Dionysios S. Demetis Science's First Mistake Bloomsbury Academic, June 2010 ISBN  978-1 8496 6064 8

So what is Science’s First Mistake? If you are looking for the long answer you will have to read this book, which took the autors over six years and literally hundreds of revisions.

Their short (and hence superficial) answer is that the Science’s First Mistake is the assumption that our world operates according to causal laws – that causality is built into the fabric of that world, and that Science is the uncovering of those laws from empirical observations.

This book on the other hand claims that Science is a collection of delusions in pursuit of theory, an umbrella-term covering an incoherent and un-unifiable set of socially-constructed, self-referential linear abstractions for describing what is our non-linear world. Causality is just one of the many means whereby human cognition makes sense of the world – that sense is not in the world. It is constructed in the head of the observer. Science’s First Mistake is to forget that its abstractions do not deal with reality, rather its models and theories are ‘unnatural in nature’ and artificial, and indeed quite absurd when viewed from outside the tunnel-vision of science’s self-referential certainty. Scientific descriptions, enmeshed as they are in the structural coupling of cognition and observation, may deliver clarity of purpose along the tunnel’s axis, but leave the periphery littered in paradox and absurdity.

Download a free pdf copy of the book

Mary C. Lacity, Leslie P. Willcocks and Yingqin Zheng| (eds) China's Emerging Outsourcing Capabilities: The Services Challenge Palgrave, February 2010 ISBN 978-0 2302 3844 2

While China is known for its immense manufacturing base, in recent years the Chinese government has assigned a high priority to science and technology services as its future growth sectors. The Chinese government is supporting this vision with the establishment of research and technology parks, favourable tax incentives, policy reform, grants to help Chinese firms achieve certifications, investments in infrastructure, and promotion of IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services. Beyond the aspirations of its leaders, is China ready to compete in the global ITO and BPO markets? How can Western managers successfully engage Chinese ITO/BPO suppliers?

In this book, top scholars and practitioners doing leading research on China's ITO and BPO sector help answer these questions. All told, this book reports on findings from 519 interviews, 305 surveys, 11 detailed case studies, and 34 formal presentations. Authors analyze the strengths and weaknesses of China's ITO and BPO markets, categorize and analyze Chinese suppliers, project future trends in China's ITO and BPO capabilities, and prescribe lessons for Western managers seeking to engage Chinese suppliers. Several chapters contain studies of Chinese suppliers and clients engaged in particular ITO or BPO services, including, procurement, media relations, logistics, and research and development. Overall, the Chinese ITO and BPO markets are changing rapidly as they both respond to and help form the global outsourcing landscape. This book provides an in-depth, contemporary view on where China is heading, how it is going to get there, and how companies and countries can engage with China's emerging outsourcing capabilities.

Edgar Whitley and Gus Hosein Global Challenges for Identity Policies Palgrave, November 2009 IBSN

Chrisanthi Avgerou|, Giovan Francesco Lanzara and Leslie P Willcocks| (eds) Bricolage, Care and Information: Claudio Ciborra's legacy in information systems research Palgrave, October 2009 ISBN 978-0 2302 2073 7

Claudio Ciborra was one of the most innovative thinkers in the field of information systems. He was one of the first scholars who introduced institutional economics in the study of IS; he elaborated new concepts, such as 'the platform organization', 'formative contexts'; and he contributed to the development of a new perspective altogether through Heideggerian phenomenology. This book contains the most seminal work of Claudio Ciborra and work of other authors who were inspired by this work and built on it. It is composed by three parts: The first part is an introduction, written by Giovan Francesco Lanzara, that takes the reader through the unfolding of Ciborra's thought and elaborates on the main themes of his work, namely socio-technical systems, institutional economics of information systems, IT and organizational learning, and finally his phenomenological analyses of information systems. The second part contains 11 of Claudio Ciborra's publications, selected by the editors to convey best the development of his work; it includes articles on all the thematic categories identified at the introduction, though the largest category is on his phenomenological work, which was his most significant contribution. The third part contains 9 articles by other authors (2 of them co-authored by Ciborra) whose research was founded on Ciborra's ideas.

Shirin Madon e-Governance for Development: A Focus on Rural India Palgrave, October 2009 ISBN 978-0 2302 0157 6

Over the past few decades, there has been a rapid proliferation of eGovernance for Development projects aimed at introducing ICTs to improve systems of governance and thereby to promote development. In this book, the author unpacks the theoretical concepts of development and governance in order to propose an alternative conceptual framework which encourages a deeper understanding of macro and micro-level political, social and administrative processes within which eGovernance projects are implemented. The book draws on over fifteen years of research in India during which time many changes have occurred in terms of the country's development ideology, governance reform strategy and ICT deployment. Three case studies are presented, each specific to a different social sector and located in a different state within India, to expose the rich context within which eGovernance applications are implemented. The aim of this book is not to prescribe but to draw attention to the fact that technological solutions such as eGovernance should not overshadow the need to gain a deep understanding of the historical processes of development and governance that have evolved over time.

Ilan Oshri , Julia Kotlarsky and  Leslie P. Willcocks (eds) The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring Palgrave, October 2009 ISBN  978-0 2302 3550 2

By end of 2009, Information Technology outsourcing (ITO) revenues exceeded $US 250 million while those for business process outsourcing were more than US$ 140 billion. The revenues from offshore outsourcing of business and Information Technology (IT) services exceeded US$ 60 billion, and over the next five years the compound annual growth rate for offshore outsourcing is expected to be about 20%. By 2006, over 200 firms from the Forbes 2000 companies and nearly 50% of the Fortune Global 250 had offshored IT and business process activities. In 2008 India posted some 65% of the ITO and 43% of the Business Process outsourcing (BPO) market (Willcocks and Lacity, 2009). It is common to talk of Brazil, Russia, India and China as the BRIC inheritors of globalisation, offering both offshore IT and back-office services, and also, with their vast populations and developing economies, huge potential markets. In 2008 India exported US$ 40 billion of such services, while China, Russia, and Brazil managed US$ 5 billion, US$ 3.65 billion, and US$ 800 million respectively. But the phenomenon of offshoring and offshore outsourcing is certainly expanding, with, on our count, some 120 centres developing around the world. Therefore it has become increasingly important to understand the phenomenon, not least as a basis for suggesting what directions it will take, its impacts, how it has been conducted, and how its management can be better facilitated.

'In a truly globalized world, customers are looking not just at delivery excellence from service providers, but also global execution capabilities. Outsourcing providers need to look beyond standardized services to include innovation and transformation capabilities, embedded into their offering. This requires providers to focus on the customer's business, understand the issues and then provide solutions. This book provides a very good customer-centric view of how providers need to approach the market.' -

Girish Ramachandran, Corporate Director - Strategic Business, Tata Consultancy Services 

Mary C. Lacity and Leslie P. Willcocks (eds) The Practice of Outsourcing: From Information Systems to BPO and Offshoring Palgrave MacMillan, June 2009 ISBN: 978-0 2302 0541 3

This book details nearly 20 years of research into the outsourcing phenomenon, and is companion to the earlier Palgrave volume Information Systems and Outsourcing: Studies in Theory and Practice. Using an unparalleled database of over 650 longitudinal case studies the authors document and analyses outsourcing's rise prominence in the 1990s, pinpointing trends, practices and lessons. It finds that many of the so-called 'strategic alliances' of this period tended to be straightforward 'fee-for-service contracts in practice. The book develops critieria for making sourcing decisions, and provides details of the practices that work, and those that do not.

The authors then detail developments in the IT, business process and offshore outsourcing service markets from 2000 on. They show that, against a background of growth in global revenues, outsourcing provided real promise on costs and service, new models, but also new challenges to client organizations and suppliers alike. Based on their research work, the authors point to thirteen future global sourcing trends from 2009-14. The book documents how organizations have been learning, experientially, and often painfully, how to manage back office outsourcing. But the increased size, importance, complexity of the phenomena, and the risks they engender, suggest that in the next phase, already started in some organizations discussed in the book, research will be into how organizations seek to provide leadership in outsourcing. For the authors, this shift will be a necessary one if governance, control, flexibility and superior business performance are to be outsourcing's consequences.

Tanai Khiaonarong and Jonathan Liebenau: Banking on Innovation: modernisation of payment systems Springer, May 2009 ISBN: 978-3 7908 2332 5

Innovation in banking should be directed at improving the infrastructure that fosters efficient financial services and international trade. In this work, innovation theory is used to show how modern payment systems have transformed the technology of banking and facilitated changes in the strategy and structure of financial services organisations. Design, implementation and dissemination of payment systems are described and the analysis of their costs and benefits is combined with case studies of banks undergoing change. By studying firm capabilities, competencies, and resources, the approach is extended to services in general and linked to the ability of firms to compete and promote national economies. Payment systems vary and advanced and developing economies face obstacles in their legal and technical infrastructure, and maturity of banks. By adopting an international perspective, the book offers a unique comparative analysis that shows what kind of investments are likely to be effective.

Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks (eds): Information Systems and Outsourcing Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2008 ISBN: 978-0 23020 537 6

This book offers a new look at nearly 20 years of leading theoretical and practical research on IT outsourcing by two renowned authors and their global network of 11 distinguished co-authors. This book includes renowned authors in this field - Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks. It provides deeply researched, evidence-based findings. It combines focus on theory and practice, and provides both academics and practitioners valuable information, frameworks and advice on practices that work. It provides usable models, frameworks and recommendations. It offers comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of major issues in ICT sourcing strategy and implementation. The book explores how good IT outsourcing theories shape practice and how effective IT outsourcing practices inform theory. It highlights the importance of examining theories borrowed from economics, strategy, and sociology to study IT outsourcing.

Ole Hanseth and Claudio Ciborra (eds): Risk, Complexity and ICT Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2007 ISBN 978 1 84542 661 3

This book explores the challenges regarding risks and risk management related to the growing complexity of ICT solutions.

The main argument of the book is that the complexity of ICT solutions has continued to grow throughout the history of ICT, and that it has now reached a level that goes beyond our current understanding of solutions and our methods of dealing with them. The contributors demonstrate how the complexity of ICT solutions is increased by various integration efforts. Drawing upon theories of risk society and reflexive modernization, various case studies are used to demonstrate efforts aimed at controlling and managing the complexities of various ICT solutions. Paradoxically, these control and management measures are shown to increase rather than decrease complexity and risk.

Researchers, academics and students with an interest in information systems management, organization studies, and science and technology will find much to interest them in this illuminating book, as will ICT practitioners and information systems managers.

'This book will provide a refreshing alternative to many of the mainstream approaches to risk, which merely suggest the use of new methodologies. Both academics and practitioners are aware that these new techniques are rarely the panacea that is being suggested, and a book that provides some deeper level of understanding would be welcomed. The authors are well established academically, with a good track record of publishing books. Their names alone will draw attention to this publication. Risk, Complexity and ICT provides an interesting synthesis of ideas, with an engaging mix of theory with illustrative and diverse case studies. This is a book that I would want to purchase, would recommend to colleagues, and would seriously consider using in my teaching.'
- Debra Howcroft, University of Manchester, UK

List of chapters and contributors

Jannis Kallinikos: The Consequences Of Information Institutional Implications of Technological Change Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2006 ISBN 978-1-84542-328-5

'The Consequences of Information is a brilliant penetrating meditation on the evolution of modernity as we struggle to adapt to our new information "habitat". Jannis Kallinikos describes with force and precision the way our once heterogeneous reality is subjected to the methods of information technology and reconstituted on the microscopic level of the particle: life is literally turned to dust. Yet this decomposition yields fresh possibilities of redistribution and recomposition. What will be our fate? Will our "progressive emancipation from material constraints" lead to a new disaggregation of resources, shifting power to individual consumers and citizens? Or will it produce a surprising "retraditionalization": a return to feudal social relations in which the individual is wholly absorbed by the institutional order? Kallinikos' fascinating and virtuoso treatise returns the study of information systems to where it belongs - at the heart of debate on the future of institutions and the destiny of the individual.'
- Shoshana Zuboff, formerly at Harvard Business School, Harvard University, US

'Kallinikos develops brilliant and original analytics to capture one of the deeper meanings of the information era: the disaggregating of reality into the elements of software code and the reconstitution of these elements into novel social forms. Information thus conceived is shown to produce new conditions from the infrastructural bottom-up rather than top-down from the powerful global controllers and makers of information.'
- Saskia Sassen, author of Territory Authority Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

Leslie P. Willcocks and Mary C. Lacity: Global Sourcing of Business and IT Services Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, September 2006, ISBN  0-23-000659-0

This book is a reality check on the trends in global sourcing of information technology and business services. While the vision of global sourcing networks that are agile, effective and cost efficient is available, it requires an immense amount of trial and error and detailed management. Written by two internationally recognized academics in the field, with expert contributions, it covers IT outsourcing, offshoring, business process outsourcing and netsourcing and includes cases and commentaries on best practices.

Chrisanthi Avgerou, Claudio Ciborra and Frank Land (eds): The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology: innovation, actors, and contexts, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, ISBN hardback 0-19-925356-0; paperback 0-19-925352-8

Information systems is an area of research positioned between management studies and applied computing, where it is influenced by numerous kindred and reference disciplines. This book brings together a collection of papers that exemplify the current state of one of the strands of this hybrid field, the social study of information and communication technology. This is a collection of papers by members of the LSE Department of Information Systems and a number of their close collaborators from elsewhere.

John Mingers and Leslie P. Willcocks (eds): Social Theory and Philosophy for Information Systems John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 2004, ISBN: 0-470-85117-1

As Information Systems matures as a discipline, there is a gradual move away from pure statistics towards consideration of alternative approaches and philosophies. This has not been incorporated into the literature of the field. Until now. Collecting major social theorists and philosophers into one volume, Social Theory and Philosophy for Information Systems provides a historical and critical analysis of each that is both authoritative and firmly focused on practical relevance to IS. The result is an insightful text for researchers, academics and students that will provide an up-to-date starting point for those considering alternative approaches.

"I would highly recommend that all libraries in institutions, where information systems theory is taught should acquire a copy of this book." Journal of the Operational Research Society

Robert D Galliers and Dorothy E Leidner, Strategic Information Management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems (third edn), Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2002 ISBN 0750656190

Building on the success of the earlier editions of Strategic Information Management, this third edition draws on a wide range of contemporary articles by leading experts in North America and Europe, such as Bob Benjamin, Michael Earl, Blake Ives, Sirkka Jarvenpaa, Lynne Markus, Edgar Schein and Leslie Willcocks. Each deals with aspects of the most important and pressing information systems management themes.

Claudio Ciborra: The Labyrinths of Information: challenging the wisdom of systems, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN: 0-19-924152-X

'Claudio Ciborra has a more detailed, nuanced, and sophisticated understanding of the dynamics associated with information technology in today's organisations than any scholar working in the field today. His work is grounded in ultra realism, but his observations are interpreted through classical schema that provide immense illumination. The effect is a series of highly literate jewel-like essays that are intellectually fascinating but could also change the life of any practitioner who bothered to read and ponder.' - Shoshana Zuboff, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; author of In the Age of the Smart Machine.  

Chrisanthi Avgerou: Information Systems and Global Diversity, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN: 0199240779

This book studies the intertwined processes of information systems implementation and organisational change within the current trend of economic globalisation. It highlights the significance of local context and points out the institutional forces and the multiple rationalities that influence the implementation and use of information technology in diverse organisational settings.

Jannis Kallinikos: The Age of Flexibility: managing organixations and technology, Academia Adacta, Lund, Sweden 2001, ISBN: 9189300033

This book addresses basic economic and organisational implications associated with the diffusion of contemporary information technologies and the economic and institutional change signified by the close of the industrial age. It is appropriate for basic courses in management, organisation theory and behaviour, information systems, marketing, sociology, social policy and public administration.

Ian Angell: The New Barbarian Manifesto: how to survive the information age, Kogan Page, London, 2000, ISBN: 0749431512

'The New Barbarian Manifesto is a highly readable, hugely enjoyable hi-tech version of The Decline of the West.' The Guardian

'An apocalyptic, dystopian vision of the future which calls for radical action... Angell's thesis has the virtue of boldness.' The Financial Times

'A prophet of the 21st century.' Independent on Sunday

Kristin Braa, Carsten Sørensen and Bo Dahlbom: Planet Internet, Studentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden, 2000, ISBN: 9144013523

This edited volume presents 12 chapters, each revealing a facet of how the relationships between people and information technology are changing in the internet era. The book asks a range of questions related to the consequences of living with technology in the 21st century, based on research conducted within the Internet Project between 1995 and 1999.

Claudio Ciborra: From Control to Drift: the dynamics of corporate information infrastructures, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000, ISBN: 0198297343

A revealing insight into the issues surrounding information infrastructure implementation in large, global corporations. Case study material from six different international corporations - AstraZeneca, IBM, Norsk Hydro, Roche, SKF and Statoil - shows a complex picture of implementation, and one that cannot be interpreted using current management thinking. The author suggests that the economics of standards and increasing returns be joined with the perspectives from the social studies of science and technology to provide the fundamentals for a fresh view of the management of IT in global corporations.

'Refreshing new scholarly ideas connected to everyday practice. A gold mine of theory and practice.' - Chris Argyris