Strengthening the Use of Enterprise Architecture: an Institutional Work Perspective

Abstract

The organisational adoption and use of Enterprise Architecture (EA) are pursued by enterprises aiming to improve their digital services and overall performance by aligning IT with processes. Nevertheless, despite the increasing interest in EA, it is still not widely used. Prior research provides explanations of institutional elements enabling or inhibiting EA adoption and use but does not provide concrete suggestions on facilitating EA adoption. This paper suggests different types of institutional work that can strengthen the use of EA, addressing central challenges met by EA initiatives. Specifically, the paper presents evidence from a longitudinal case study on the introduction of EA in the hospital sector in Norway. We show how institutional work can mitigate the inherent challenges of EA initiatives and thereby speed-up and strengthen the use of EA in organisations.