Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Government Information Quarterly 25 (2008) 155 – 180

E-government policy and practice: A theoretical and empirical exploration of public e-procurement
Catherine A. Hardy ⁎, Susan P. Williams
Information Policy and Practice Research Group, Discipline of Business Information Systems,
Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Available online 19 April 2007

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to theoretically and empirically explore how public e-procurement policies are translated into practice. The theoretical argument draws on actor network theory (ANT), coupled with Colebatch’s [Colebatch, H. K. (2002). Policy (2nd ed.). Maidenhead, Open University
Press.] social construct of policy, to analyze the actors, actions, and circumstances through which understanding of public e-procurement comes to stabilize (or not) into a coherent policy for action.
Drawing on three case studies of central government agencies in Italy, Scotland, and Western
Australia, we suggest new intellectual perspectives and methodological heuristics that may assist researchers and practitioners analytical efforts in examining sociotechnical change and the implications for policy development and implementation.
© 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: E-government; E-procurement; Actor network theory; Social construction of policy

1. Introduction
Public e-procurement, as an information system (IS) enabled innovation in government, is transforming technological platforms and the way governments in Western countries procure goods and services and engage with suppliers (Lee, Tan & Trimi, 2005; Moe, 2004).
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: c.hardy@econ.usyd.edu.au (C.A. Hardy), s.williams@econ.usyd.edu.au (S.P. Williams).
0740-624X/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.giq.2007.02.003 156

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Leveraging information technology to achieve better information, value for money, efficiencies, and maximize procurement effectiveness is widely documented with respect to both public and private sector contexts (Moe, 2004; NASPO, 2005; Carayannis & Popescu,
2005; Roth, 2001; Presutti, 2003; Puschmann & Alt, 2005). However, while public eprocurement has similarities with the private sector, in terms of its focus on value, competitiveness, and accountability, it differs because of its social welfare implications
(Panayiotou, Gayialis & Tatsiopoulos, 2004). Hence, public e-procurement has policy implications not only with respect to setting rules and standards that promote fairness, equity, and transparency in public contracting but also in advancing other government initiatives and policy goals such as economic development and information and communication technology
(ICT) innovations (NASPO, 2005; Carayannis & Popescu, 2005).
The pace of technological change (Munir & Jones, 2004), together with broader shifts in forms of governing generally in liberal democratic states (Dean & Henman, 2004), characterized by a trend towards the need for a wider range of participants in collective decision making processes in uncertain, and complex contexts, has created challenges in how efficiency is achieved, accountability maintained, and issues of equity addressed in the provision of public services (Stoker, 2006). This suggests that policy goals of IS enabled government innovations, such as public e-procurement, may be more amorphous, the delivery of which may rely on the coordination of heterogeneous actors within, and across organizational boundaries. Further, tensions and conflicts may arise with other policy areas because of competing objectives or priorities (such as economically efficient sourcing strategies vs regional development initiatives), changing political landscapes, and different information systems. This presents risks and raises uncertainties in terms of how some
“sufficiently stable” understanding of public e-procurement is constructed upon which government policy, and potentially substantial expenditure will be based. Further, the goals articulated may bear little resemblance to what is happening in practice. This may raise the question that if the outcome differs significantly from the stated intentions whether there has been some “implementation failure” with the policy (Colebatch, 2002). While policy may be clearly grounded in some conscious choice, its origins may exist in practice (Colebatch, 2002).
Therefore, determining what business designs will deliver the greatest benefits and achieving desired goals in a prescribed timeframe may prove difficult.
These issues focus attention on the need for a policy approach that is sensitive to sociotechnical change. That is, to assist in understanding how we arrive at, and what events precede moments described as e-procurement policy implementation success, and the role of policy in shaping these moments. The current literature is limited in both its attention to and perspectives on public e-procurement policy. For example, it has been viewed as a driver in the design of the procurement process (Panayiotou et al., 2004), and as an implication arising from e-procurement use (Chu, Hsiao & Chen, 2004) or “new information technology” to support the “delivery of an effective public procurement policy”
(Carayannis & Popescu, 2005) taking an instrumental perspective of known desired objectives. The way in which policy may shape and be transformed in e-procurement practice is less visible yet critical in further developing theory about public e-procurement policy as well as to assist practice.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine how abstract governmental e-procurement policies are translated into public procurement practices addressing three guiding questions: What is the nature of public e-procurement and how is it developed in localized situations over time?
How did public e-procurement practice form the basis (or not) for government action and policy? How is the concept of public e-procurement policy itself represented and mobilized in different contexts? The story of its implementation is provided by drawing on three case studies of central government agencies in Italy, Scotland, and Western Australia, together with an analysis of its constituent elements laid out using actor network theory (ANT)
(Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987; Law, 1991) and Colebatch’s (2002) social construct of policy. In doing so three key objectives are served. Firstly, to make visible role(s) played by key actors in different settings that assisted in translating e-procurement policy into practice. Secondly, provide an empirical illustration of how this analytical lens is a useful methodological heuristic for making sense of e-procurement in action. Thirdly, offer “new” intellectual perspectives that have the potential to contribute to the development of a more enhanced understanding of sociotechnical change and policy implementation in terms of how “differing understandings encounter one another” (Colebatch, 2002, p. 61) in IS-enabled innovations in government. The paper is organized as follows. In the next section, a brief description of the representations and developments in policy theory is provided to set the context for the discussion relating to Colebatch’s social construct of policy. Insights offered by ANT are developed with regards to issues of sociotechnical change and policy. This is followed by an outline of our research design and method. We then illustrate how the theoretical perspectives were employed to make sense of e-procurement in action through the three case studies. The cases are used as judicious devices to illustrate the analytical framework and make visible the nuances of sociotechnical change and policy implementations, rather than report the research projects in detail. Finally we discuss our conclusions and implications for both research and practice. 2. Theoretical and methodological background
2.1. Policy theory and theories of policy practice
Representations of policy theory in the literature are many and varied providing different concepts, approaches, and emphasis in the analysis “of” and the analysis “for” policy (Colebatch, 2002, pp. 82–95; Hoogerwerf, 1990). The dominant paradigm in policy studies frames practice in terms of some instrumental rationality that is pursuing objectives and making decisions in a process of stages (policy cycle) (Colebatch, 2005). The presence of multiple or conflicting agendas in different public agencies are viewed by the instrumental perspective, as evidence of problems with fragmentation, control and bureaucracy, and a major “failure” on the part of government to discern pre-existing objectives (Colebatch, 2002, p, 14). Focusing attention on explaining present arrangements and justifications for change for achieving set outcomes may distract from understanding

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the potential ambiguities and complexities of reality arising from multiple actors, interests, and goals. Further the intentions and outcomes may be reflexive rather than linear, particularly in environments of continuous change. Hence, the way in which matters are constituted as problems and how generated outcomes become solutions become less visible. Challengers of the dominant paradigm have called for a reframing of the way in which policy is viewed (Yanow, 2000; Stewart & Ayres, 2001; Colebatch, 2002). We follow
Colebatch’s (2005) call for a “practice-oriented guide to policy,” that is a theory grounded in practice examining the lived experiences of policy workers (Stewart & Ayres, 2001) where our discussion now turns.
2.2. Colebatch’s social construct of policy: a social constructionist perspective
The social constructionist perspective of policy presented by Colebatch (2002) is based on the premise that neither policy nor the problems to which it addresses are natural phenomena with an existence of their own but are produced by the policy participants. Therefore, generating shared meaning is viewed as a critical part of the process, and the government as an
“arena for action,” involving many stakeholders, within, and outside of government authorities, with varying agendas, practices, and audiences, rather than “an omnipotent actor at the end of the line.” Colebatch posits there are three important issues with respect to policy, namely: a horizontal and a vertical dimension; an empirical (“is”) and normative
(“ought”) component; and language as part of the action. These different dimensions and components of the policy process may “pull in different directions” and so cannot be viewed in terms of “… one is ‘theory’ and the other is ‘practice’ [as] both are essential elements of the same process.”
The “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions impact on the way that policy is understood and interpreted. That is, the vertical dimension views policy from a top-down perspective focusing on rational choice, instrumental actions, and the pressure of legitimate authority. The horizontal dimension is concerned with the way policy structures action. That is, the relationships, and nature of linkages within, and between organizations, the interpretive frameworks used by policy participants in understanding policy questions, and the institutions within which these policy questions are mobilized. The two dimensions are mutually shaping in that the implementation of the authorized decision requires cooperation from “relevant others” which may exist outside of the line of hierarchical authority. Further the shared interpretive frames of meaning that arise from the horizontal dimension are given effect via
“the instruments of the vertical dimension” such as policy directives. Therefore, participants may have different accounts of the same process.
The concept of policy, presented by Colebatch (2002), provides not only a descriptive analytical tool but is a “concept in use,” that is, it assists in understanding the way in which practitioners use policy itself to shape action, thereby providing a means to explain and validate the action. Policy as a “concept in use” also extends to observers as a way of examining organized activity leading to questions about policy as a process and not simply as an outcome.

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In analyzing the policy process, Colebatch is also influenced by structuration theory, institutional theory, and the concept of governmentality.1 These theories present complementary approaches for examining policy processes that may provide further insight into, for example, the institutional arrangements and structures in which e-procurement policy, and practices are embedded, how organizations may come to work together on policy questions that are of common interest but for different reasons, or the significance of e-government practices in new forms of governing through things such as better information, accountability, and transparency. However, they are limited in providing a detailed and fine-grained analysis of the technical and non-technical mechanisms employed in shaping social action (Monteiro &
Hanseth, 1996). The following discussion examines actor network theory (ANT) and its illuminating aspects of sociotechnical change for extending the conceptual range of the analysis. 2.3. Actor network theory (ANT)
Originating in the larger field of the sociology of science and technology (Bijker & Law,
1992), actor network theory (ANT) (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987; Law, 1991) brings together in the same analytical view human and non-human, social, and technical actors explained by common practices (McLean & Hassard, 2004). Human and physical worlds are seen as intertwined rather than privileging one over the other. Hence, actors are not viewed in terms of determining outcomes of, in this instance, e-procurement, but as providing affordances that may (or not) present opportunities to be “taken up” (Munir & Jones, 2004). Therefore, ANT focuses attention on the way in which people act on their interests and the processes by which they bring elements of their material world together in pursuit of strategy, goals (Munir &
Jones, 2004), or in this case e-procurement policy.
As a theory of agency, a theory of knowledge, and a theory of machines (Law, 1992), ANT offers a rich vocabulary (Akrich & Latour, 1992; Latour, 1999a). Notwithstanding Latour’s
(1999b) comments, that “there are only four things that do not work with actor network theory: the word actors, the word network, the word theory, and the hyphen,” we discuss key aspects of ANT (albeit with some apprehension) that proved useful in our analysis, while also acknowledging that by drawing upon these principles there is a fluid reality.
2.3.1. Actor networks and principles of heterogeneity
The most basic aspect is that of the actor network and principles of heterogeneity, 2 that is diverse elements, such as technological artifacts, institutions, and humans, referred to as actors
(or actants), form a network of aligned interests (the “actor network”). There is no a priori definition nor prior assumptions as to which are the significant actors as this is revealed through empirical observation and analysis.

1

For a detailed discussion, see Colebatch (2002, pp. 92–94).
While the actor network is a fundamental concept in ANT, by representing it here simplistically we are not suggesting it is without as Law (1999, p. 6) states “metaphorical baggage.”
2

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2.3.2. Translation, enrollment, mobilization, and obligatory passage points
The alignment of interests depends upon the enrollment of a sufficient body of allies and the translation of their interests into particular ways of thinking and willingness to act in accordance with the prescriptions of key actors. The usage of the term “translation” varies.
Callon (1986) elaborates on the concept of translation, identifying four phases (“moments”) in the translation process, namely, problematization, profit sharing, enrollment, and mobilization.
Latour (1999b) refers to translation in two different ways. Firstly, it is viewed as an element in the process of exploring “collectives,” which also involves “cross over”, “enrollment”,
“mobilization,” and “displacement” (p. 195). However, it is later referred to in the glossary as an overarching term that refers to “the work through which actors modify, displace, and translate their various contradictory interests” (p. 311). Law (1992, p. 366) tends to focus on the outcome of the process, viewing translation as “the process … which generates ordering effects such as devices, agents, institutions, or organizations.”
While we began the analysis with the intention of applying all of these terms, the distinction between them became blurred in our empirical work to the extent that we relied on the concepts of translation, enrollment, and mobilization for our analysis as set out in Section 5.
We briefly explain each concept below.
Translation refers to both the endeavor and outcome of assembling and aligning the interests of multiple actors. It consists of the organizing processes and the deployment of devices that may be material organizations of space and time, that broadly determine what interests and subjectivities are allowable within, and what are excluded from the network.
These processes are aimed at defining and securing the roles and identities of the actors by impeding other possible alliances or barriers constituted through differences of style and language, leading to the enrollment of actors. Actors are enrolled by persuasion and incentives through processes of fabrication and negotiation leading to a network of alliances. Finally, the mobilization of allies occurs, whereby whatever fact, technology, or solution gains wider acceptance, stabilizing the network, albeit temporarily. A strategy for ensuring the durability of these alliances and control over the resources that agents need to achieve their outcomes is through the creation of an obligatory passage point that other entities need to pass through (Introna, 1997) whereby actors establish themselves as being indispensable. 2.3.3. Inscription
While various actions and practices may be seen to be creating order, these performances are not only the translations through which networks form, as they may also relate to how such networks are reformed or dissolved (Munir & Jones, 2004). This raises questions as to how we account for the ways in which some translations may have more currency than others and why they may be used with “opposite purposes” (Jones, McLean & Quattrone, 2004). Jones et al.
(2004) posit that this requires an exploration of the “interplay between heterogeneity and stability, concentrating attention on the role of inscriptions…, a central theoretical position in the construction of the concept of action at a distance and knowledge fabrication” where networks are seen as extending across space and time. The notion of inscription refers to “the types of transformation through which any entity becomes materialized into a sign, an archive,

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a document, a piece of paper, a trace” that are “always mobile” in terms of “allowing new translations … while keeping some types of relations intact” (Latour, 1999a). The strength of inscriptions, in terms of whether they must be followed or are avoided is dependent upon the irreversibility of the actor network into which they are inscribed (Monteiro, 2000). Latour (cf.
Monteiro, 2000) described the degree of irreversibility as a process of institutionalization operating in two ways. Firstly, an increased degree of irreversibility is signaled by a “firmer institutionalization.” Secondly, the “construction of institutions function as a way to align the network and make it increasingly irreversible” (Monteiro, 2000). Hence, inscriptions are crucial in the construction of centres of calculation (Jones et al., 2004) (e.g., a statistical institution or laboratory; or in this case the study of a central government agency). These centres of calculation are rendered capable of having effects, which include power (concealed or misrepresented) (Law, 1992).
Although ANT offers a number of useful insights, its analytic impartiality, generalized symmetry, repudiation of a priori distinctions between the social and the technical, and its inadequacy to capture the broader historical and cultural processes through which technologies are constituted has attracted criticism (McLean & Hassard, 2004). In this study it is proposed primarily as an analytical stance, providing a useful vocabulary for understanding the social and technical aspects of change processes, rather than denying the role of social institutions or the status of social actors. Further, it is complemented with Colebatch’s social construct of policy to provide the breadth and depth of analysis rendered necessary because of the complexity of the public e-procurement policy phenomena, where our discussion now turns. 2.4. Exploring the contribution of policy and ANT for theorizing public e-procurement policy
The two theoretical approaches discussed above are complementary but diverge to varying degrees with respect to how the social construction of technology can be understood, providing different ways of understanding the cases.
The policy perspective is centered on policy action, how it shapes practice, and the actions of individuals engaged in steering the activity. It considers issues such as why the government is pursuing e-procurement, who sets the priorities, who is involved in the policy-making process, and how the “relevant” groups involved are persuaded to support and deliver public e-procurement. A particular focus is on the interpretive frameworks used in understanding policy questions, such as the ideologies and resources they bring to the process, the past, and present connections between the policy participants, the locations in which they interact, and the institutional arrangements within which meanings are mobilized. The social constructionist perspective, underpinning Colebatch’s social construct of policy, is concerned with the relevant social group and the manner in which differing meanings, for example, of e-procurement may come to be resolved, bringing with it diminishing interpretive flexibility, closure, and stabilization. The networks, in which meaning is constructed, are viewed as being constituted by human beings. In contrast, networks for ANT are not seen to be exclusively social phenomena or as exclusively technical. 162

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The ANT approach raises questions concerned with: how public e-procurement got started, developed, and is being performed (or not); what heterogeneous elements are being brought together; and under what circumstances and through which actions does understanding of eprocurement come to stabilize sufficiently for policy action. A particular focus is on the key elements, and interests that become crystallized as meanings and actions and how they constituted and were constituted by a coherent policy for action. ANT, like other constructionist approaches, is concerned with the heterogeneous nature of the sociotechnical world.
However, it extends the social constructionist approach beyond its primary concern with the influence of prior social groups in shaping technology. Establishing whether it is natural, material, technological, or social factors that determine the relationships between the technical is considered a complex empirical question that cannot be predefined and will vary from context to context (McLoughlin, 1999, p. 94). Further, in contrast to the social constructionist perspective of technology, ANT focuses on entrepreneurial political activity in enrolling human and non-human actors into actor networks (ibid. 1999, p. 101) bringing a greater emphasis of power and politics to the analysis.
A major criticism, as discussed in Section 2.3, of ANT is that it addresses the local and contingent in detail, however, pays limited attention to the broader social structures, material relations, and power systems in which interpretation takes place (Walsham, 1997). Combining the ANT perspective with Colebatch’s social construct of policy, which incorporates the complementary approaches of structuration and institutional theory, provides a broader contextual template in which to identify possible explanations for the cases. Bringing together contextual explanations with ANT may be viewed as incompatible with ANT’s focus on actors’ agency (Latour, 2004). However, we argue, similar to Avgerou & Madon (2004), that
ANT is a useful starting point in which to trace the actors involved in “episodes of the innovation process” but needs to be followed by an analysis of the social contexts in which these lived experiences take place. This requires the “initial boundaries of a study [to] be redrawn as the study progresses to look more closely within specific institutions or to understand the relationships among institutional actors” (Avgerou & Madon, 2004). The methodological implications of this are examined in the following section.

3. The research setting
3.1. Research methodology: reflexivity and case study research
The philosophical positions and theoretical perspectives that underpin this study, discussed in Section 2, requires analytic methods that are sensitive to sense making and interpretation so as to reveal what actors (as researcher and practitioner) find meaningful in different situations.
Hence, an interpretive based case study approach was adopted as it draws out potentially ambiguous meaning and the possibilities of multiple interpretations of actions and artifacts, such as policy documents, in context (Yanow, 2000). However, the case study method adopted in our research praxis is not a neutral representational tool. The case research avoids the object of investigation (the cases) being the means of its own investigation as its purpose is not to

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“generate theories by abstracting and generalizing organizational phenomena,” but rather to
“gain insights into problematic issues” (Quattrone & Hopper, 2005), which in this study relates to how public e-procurement policy is translated into practice. Interpretations derived from the empirical investigation cannot be divorced from the theory that underpins it and theory in itself is not sufficient as it needs to be grounded in particular practices and technologies in and over time (Adam, 2004). Therefore, it is more of a reflexive process as the theory both constitutes and describes its object of interest, challenging taken for granted explanations with interpretations drawn from the cases (Calas & Smircich, 1999). As there is no distinction between the object itself and how it is investigated, dichotomies of theory and empirics, researcher and participant, description and explanation disappear, as observers cannot be detached from their observations, and so are viewed more in terms of simultaneous ways of seeing (Quattrone & Hopper, 2005).
The relationship between the case studies and theorization in this paper has been presented in the previous sections. The discussion now moves on to describe the field research for the purpose of clarifying how our interpretations of events and actions were derived to create a story of public e-procurement policy in action.
3.2. The fieldwork
The research project from which the case study material is drawn was part of a broader study instigated by the Australian Government Information Office (AGIMO) in 2004 with a particular interest in the design and implementation of public e-procurement policy. In-depth case studies were developed to describe and understand emerging designs for and meanings of public e-procurement in five central government agencies nominated by AGIMO (2005), consisting of three international studies, Italy, Scotland, and New Zealand, and two
Australian states namely, Western Australia (WA) and New South Wales (NSW). Key people within the central government agencies associated with each e-procurement initiative were interviewed. In total sixteen interviews were conducted each typically lasting one and a half hours. The interviews were carried out between June and August 2004. The semistructured interviews were recorded, transcribed, and reviewed. Interviewees also produced further documentation (research reports, memos, proposals, etc.) to support their statements. After each interview, the researchers’ reflections were noted and later compared with the transcriptions. In addition, documentary evidence was obtained from official records (e.g., policy documents, annual reports), consultancy reports, reports from international bodies (e.g., European Union), and newspapers. This, along with member checking of the case study write-ups, with the participants, provided triangulation of the research evidence, although our concern was more in terms of gaining a broader
“appreciation of organizing, and ordering practices, and thus of the very situated, and precarious nature” of the research activity rather than achieving some form of validation in a positivistic sense (Wolfram Cox & Hassard, 2005). The examination of interpretations and points of view over time was conducted through retrospective analysis of case materials and interviews. However, in doing so the limitations of retrospective rationalizations are recognized. 164

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A thematic analysis of the data was conducted at two levels. Thick descriptions presenting the development and impact of e-procurement systems were created for each case. Our intention in doing this was not just to find evidence of the existence of particular designs, events, and practices but also to explain how these evolved by examining how they were connected over time. Through this analysis a basic overarching story began to emerge for each site as well as similarities and differences between each case. As the cases evolved, we iterated theoretical issues with empirical material, discussed these findings between ourselves, while circling back to the institutional contexts of each site, reading, and revising our case histories in the process. In doing so key actors that were initially identified were in some instances removed from our analysis as events and connections between them changed and then reconsidered in a different capacity. This analysis provided a richer and deeper understanding of how e-procurement policies and practices were constructed and enacted in each context and their mutual shaping.

4. Case illustrations
Three of the five cases conducted are discussed in this paper.3 The three cases, Italy,
Scotland, and Western Australia, were selected for discussion on the basis that they provide maximum variation in terms of representing international and national contexts and varying degrees of “success” as defined by the case participants (Hardy & Williams, 2005). These cases are used as judicious devices to illustrate the theoretical argument, providing insights into how the complementary or different analyses assisted in understanding the nature of public e-procurement and the way developments unfold in a policy context. Further, at an empirical level, the cases reveal the bases for government action in each context.
4.1. Case descriptions—The story in brief
The following tables provide an overview of the three cases. We present an outline of key events, moments, and explanations within each case (Tables 1–3).

5. Case interpretations
The following discussion explores the key actors and organizing processes that surrounded the emergence of e-procurement in four sections, namely, making sense of and framing the need for e-procurement; translating the “idea” into local practice; traversing the obligatory passage points; and inscribing the meaning of e-procurement. While we present each of these elements as sequential moments below, this is solely for the purpose of ease of analysis as it is

3
Detailed commentaries of the project cases may be found in previously published work (AGIMO, 2005; Hardy and Williams 2005, Williams and Hardy, 2005).

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more appropriate to conceptualize them as parallel dimensions in the social practice of organizing. 5.1. Making sense of and framing the need for public e-procurement: how the idea became noticeable In the earlier periods of all three cases, public e-procurement was not noticeable in its own right but evolved from a series of events relating to recommendations from reviews and programs for better governance in public administration generally and procurement specifically, such as “Il Programma di razionalizzazione della spessa” (The Program for the
Rationalisation of Public Spending) (1999) in Italy; the “Commission on Government
Review” (1998–1999), “Machinery of Government Review,” and subsequently “The
Functional Review Taskforce” (FRT) (2002) in Western Australia; and the UK Government
“Efficiency in Civil Government Procurement” (1998) and subsequent “Review of the Civil
Service in Government” (1999). During these review periods, interest in the Internet was growing, and increasing attention was being directed at the potential of information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled innovations for assisting governments in providing more efficient and effective services. For example, in Italy the Concessionaria Servizi
Informatici Pubblici (CONSIP) was established in 1997, predominately as an IT provider for the Ministro dell’Economia e delle Finanze (MEF), for the purpose of increasing the adoption of ICTs in government agencies and encouraging its use in the redesign of internal activities as part of “modernizing” public administration. The online tendering system in Western Australia
(WA), which evolved from the Government Contracting Information Bulletin Board, itself arising from the Commission on Government Review, generated interest from the Contract and
Management Services (CAMS) into the potential for electronic marketplace, electronic purchasing, and electronic procurement systems.
This combination of factors triggered, among other things, interest in e-procurement as a potential means of improving efficiencies and transparency in government procurement processes. Hence, the idea of e-procurement was initially formulated in broader government and procurement reform agendas rather than within the agencies that were meant to adopt it and/or translate it into action. While a commonality existed in terms of the perceived benefits of improving public governance and procurement more specifically, this did not necessarily result in some universal adoption of e-procurement but rather different names, designs, and practices at different times. The responsibility for exploring and implementing the idea of eprocurement was passed to particular agencies, namely CONSIP in Italy, the Scottish
Procurement Directorate (SPD) in Scotland and CAMS in Western Australia, who became the
“idea carriers”(Czarniawska & Joerges, 1996) in different guises namely the “Direzione
Acquisti in Rete della PA (DARPA) (Division of Online Purchasing), the National eProcurement Scotl@nd (NePS) programme, and the Government Electronic Market
(GEM™), respectively. However, as discussed in Section 4.1 each of these agencies had different histories, and contexts, offering different “scripts” in making sense of, and framing the “necessity” for e-procurement, which influenced how the idea of e-procurement “travelled” in different spaces and time (Czarniawska & Joerges, 1996), where our discussion now turns.

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Key events
1997
Concessionaria Servizi Informatici Pubblici (CONSIP) established predominately as an IT provider for the
Ministro dell'Economia e delle Finanze (MEF)
(see http://www.consip.it/scd/index.jsp)
1999
The responsibility for “Il Programma di razionalizzazione della spesa' (The Program for the Rationalisation of
Public Spending) delegated to CONSIP by the MEF
CONSIP creates a second division called the Direzione
Acquisti in Rete della PA (DARPA)
(Division of Online Purchasing)

2000
Rationalization program mandated by the “Legge
Finanziaria 2000” (Financial Act)
[Legge 23/12/99, n. 488]
Electronic cataloguing system created in July
Major “ramp up of resources” to support the program
Online auction platform developed (see Acquisti in
Rete-della Pubblica Amministrazione at: http://www.acquistinretepa.it/) Explanations
Use of ICT considerably lower than comparable economies, notwithstanding the highest mobile telephone usage in any industrialized country.

“Modernizing” public administration. Requirements of the Italian Anti Trust Authority relating to fairer competition and audit recommendations regarding improving cost efficiencies in the purchasing of goods and services focussed attention on strengthening public procurement practices.
DARPA assigned the task of developing master conventions for “frame contracts” with suppliers to satisfy needs of Central and Local Administrations. Structured into six key areas: project management, monitoring and research and development; legal; purchasing; sourcing; e-procurement marketplace strategy; and e-procurement systems. Of the 500 employees that work in CONSIP, approximately 170 are dedicated to DARPA. Further, more than half of the DARPA employees were located in the purchasing and sourcing areas to assist public administrations and suppliers in adopting and using e-procurement.
Goals of the rationalization program and the e-procurement initiative were consistent with broader European Union directives and initiatives relating to public procurement, electronic exchange of information between public administrations and economic reform.
However, primary objectives were to reduce costs, simplify purchasing procedures, and increase transparency in public administrations.
Incorporated in the Financial Act was the use of common strategies in purchases supported by framework agreements negotiated by CONSIP. Compulsory for central government departments to join. For local bodies, such as municipalities and schools the frame contracts only needed to be used as a term of reference.

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Table 1
Public e-procurement in Italy: key events and explanations

2002
Presidential Decree 101
2003
Financial Act amended

2004
The program slows in the earlier parts of 2004
DARPA conducts a major change management program
The Electronic Marketplace established for smaller purchases and supplies in different geographical locations

The decree regulated the use of digital procedures for public procurement in Italy impacting CONSIP activities.
The amendment set out in further details the statutory requirements for public administrations. However, further enforcement had created “a little bit of rupture in the system.” Making the system initially compulsory was seen as a necessity premised on the notion that suppliers would be more interested if they had certainty that someone would buy from the system. It was subsequently amended maintaining the obligation only for the purchasing of goods and the supply of services characterized by high quality low labour intensity. However, onus on administrations to demonstrate they can negotiate better positions if they choose not to use the system.
Resistance was experienced from both the administrations and suppliers because of changing procurement practices and the need to use IT. A change management program was implemented to assist and educate the public administration bodies and the suppliers about the “new model.”
As a large portion of the economy in Italy is based on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), pressure was exerted from strong supplier associations for equitable access to government business. They were concerned that in deriving economies of scale through the aggregation of demand, SMEs were being excluded.

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Electronic cataloguing system replicated the specifications and terms of the frame contracts for public administrations to view online.
Online auction platform was developed for the use of CONSIP in awarding frame contracts for goods and services. Further enforced transparency in purchasing procedures as suppliers were able to view and bid for the tenders as well as being informed about the outcome.

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Table 2
Public e-procurement in Western Australia (WA): key events and explanations

1999
Gem Tendering system created

2000
Gem Purchasing launched in early 2000
(available at: http://www.gem.wa.gov.au/Gem)
Contract for supplying the IT platform for Gem Purchasing awarded to locally led SUN Microsystems consortium in August 2000 with other provides producing the catalogues and integrating the individual modules

July 2001
Gem Purchasing fully functional by July 2001
2002
A number of government agencies rationalized in response to the recommendations from the Machinery of Government
Review (the Review)
Functional Review Taskforce (FRT) formed to undertake a review into the effective delivery of government priorities
(see the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Functional

Explanations
The Gem Tendering system evolved from the Government Contracting Information
Bulletin Board, which arose from the Commission on Government Review
(1998–1999). The system was the responsibility of the Contract and Management
Services (CAMS) and was created to advertise tenders and give early tender advice.
The online tendering idea served to trigger interest by CAMS into the potential for electronic marketplace, electronic purchasing, and electronic procurement systems.
The initiative was kicked off with a buy local initiative and a budget of approximately $3 million. It was also supported by other initiatives such as the WA
Government Online Agenda.
The contractor faced a steep learning curve in understanding the IT architecture, which resulted in implementation delays and dissatisfaction in agencies.
Gem Purchasing was intended to serve as a vehicle for CAMS' core business of managing contracts and became an instrument of state development in terms of
(1) encouraging business with government and (2) maintaining market space following concerns expressed by the Department of Commerce and Trade (DCT) that business could be lost to the eastern states of Australia. However, while operational and functional issues were being addressed, there was a view that Gem
Purchasing was evolving into a phenomenon that was extending to something further than the initial intention of managing contracts more effectively.
This coincided with the commencement of the Department of Justice Prisons
Supply Chain Management project.
Following the Review the DCT and CAMS merged to form the Department of
Industry and Technology (DoIT).
The FRT was required to examine the programs, functions, activities, and services of each agency serving two purposes: (1) to determine their efficiency and effectiveness and (2) to identify areas of expenditure where a whole of the government approach could produce a more effective outcome.

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Key events

Recommendations relating to procurement reform, corporate services reform, e-government, and capital asset management from a whole of government perspective. Areas of interest in procurement reform included reviewing inefficient processes; standardization of systems and specifications; and exploring more aggregation opportunities across the public sector.

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The responsibility for government procurement was moved to a new Government
Procurement Division of the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) and the
IT innovation and policy area shifted to a new Office of e-Government in the
Department of Premier and Cabinet. While the State Supply Commission has the broad policy role for Government purchasing, incorporating policy making and regulation, the responsibility of procurement is devolved to individual public authorities or the DTF and the Department of Housing and Works for above threshold purchases.
The second phase of the procurement reform focused on the procurement function itself. Labeled as Smarter Buying, the reform program served two purposes: (1) to harvest savings, through strategic sourcing initiatives, while maintaining equitable access to government business; (2) to deliver better quality procurement outcomes by enhancing the professionalism of procurement activities, the skills of procurement officers, processes, and systems, and streamlining procurement policy. These reforms were coordinated by the Procurement Program Management
Office (PMO), located within the DTF.
Users of Gem Purchasing tended to be smaller agencies that did not have any purchasing system capability and the Department of Justice Prisons Directorate; the latter the only one that had embraced the system holistically and remained the only significant user as at 2004. The lack of uptake resulted in an independent review conducted by AOT consulting Pty Ltd. During the course of the review, no work could be done on the system and it was “frozen.”
The review revealed four key issues: (1) a limited budget which contributed to problems in the production environment and data corruption because of inadequate system testing; (2) increased interest from national and international government agencies had distracted and diverted critical resources away from WA clients;
(3) enlisting a large number of suppliers early was a strategic error as there were a limited number of buyers in the marketplace; and (4) other structural reforms had created competing priorities. The review recommended that Gem Purchasing should continue, subject to its recommendations being implemented.

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Review Implementation Team site at: http://www.functionalreview.dpc.wa.gov.au/) Department of Justice Prisons Supply Chain
Management project completed in July 2002
Findings from the FRT reported to and endorsed by Cabinet in December 2002
2003
Procurement reforms commenced in February 2003 with the
DoIT disbanded.
Second phase of procurement reform.
Recommendations from an independent (Deloitte) review endorsed in December 2003 (report are available at the
Procurement Reform Web Site: http://www.dtf.wa.gov.au/ cms/ref_content.asp%3FID%3D792) Review of Gem Purchasing system conducted by AOT consulting Pty Ltd. and concluded in August 2003 (review of the GEM Purchasing E-Procurement Business System at: http://www.dtf.wa.gov.au/cms/pro_index.asp%3Fid%3D454) 170

Key events
1998
Report “Efficiency in Civil Government Procurement” published [HM Treasury and Cabinet Office (1998)
Efficiency in Civil Government Procurement Published by The Stationery Office, July 1998. ISBN 0947819 592]
1999
Report “Review of the Civil Service in Government” published [Gershon, P. (1999). Review of the Civil
Service in Government. Available at: http://archive.treasury.gov.uk/docs/1999/pgfinalr.html] May/June 1999
Devolution and the formation of the Scottish Parliament
January 2000
Procurement Advisory Board established

November 2000
National eProcurement Scotl@nd (NePS) programme established Explanation
Report identified a series of targeted measures for improving public procurement.

Report made recommendations for improvements in public procurement including the following:
- improving procurement processes
- developing the skills and status of the procurement profession; and
- exploring e-commerce and technology-enabled options for procurement
Public procurement becomes one of the responsibilities of the new Scottish
Parliament
Brief to review public procurement issues including e-procurement. The PSB membership includes representatives from Central and Local Government, the
Scottish Health Service, and the private sector. Strategy for e-procurement proposed encompassing the whole of the Scottish public sector.
NePS programme (in portfolio of the Scottish Procurement Directorate, SPD) is the key agent for implementing the Scottish e-procurement strategy. The SPD has both a policy and an operational role. In addition to its responsibility for shaping public procurement policy and practice in Scotland the Directorate is also responsible for planning and coordinating the day-to-day procurement activities of the Scottish Executive.

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Table 3
Public e-procurement in Scotland: key events and explanations

2000
SPD conducted a review of business models for public e-procurement July 2004
Efficient Government Initiative announced. Initiative promotes shared services, cross-sectoral working and best practice. Procurement a major theme.

NePS programme to establish a common platform and common approach to e-procurement in the Scottish public sector. To achieve efficiencies and cost savings for both buyers and suppliers
Focus of the programme is to
- provide a joined-up approach to public procurement in Scotland
- achieve efficiencies through improved procurement processes and deliver cost savings to government (and the Scottish taxpayer)
- raise the importance of procurement as a business activity
- improve the supplier experience of dealing with government (suppliers will be required to interact with one system when selling to the public sector)
- provide benefits to government agencies by developing common procurement processes, sharing of procurement knowledge and experiences and
- where appropriate, establish collaborative procurement practices
E-procurement business design is a fully hosted and managed service; subscription based (buying organizations pay an annual fee, no management fees for suppliers); extends to Central and Local Government and National Health Service Scotland.
Broad economic goals and provision of whole of government procurement service realized Capabilities close to full e-commerce service with addition of e-invoicing, etc.

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2001 onwards
NePS programme in action; e-procurement unfolds see e-procurement Scotland web site at: http://www.eprocurementscotland.com) NePS and Cap Gemini form alliance to deliver e-procurement hosted on elcom's PECOS Internet Procurement Manager platform Concluded no existing business model completely suitable for use in the Scottish context. Recognized that a holistic approach was required for e-procurement in
Scotland where procurement process reform and the implementation of new technologies for procurement could take place in a coordinated manner.

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5.2. Translating and mobilizing the “idea” of e-procurement into local practice: how it became important and changed
The idea of e-procurement, common to all cases, was put forward as a way of progressing procurement reform. However, it was highly subject to change, circulating within each context with different names, business designs, and practices being adopted over time. The common frame of reform that initially shaped the idea of e-procurement, outlined in Section 4.1, was packaged differently in each case. For example, incorporated in Italy’s “Legge Finanziaria”
(Financial Act) in early 2000 was the use of common strategies for purchases supported by framework agreements negotiated by CONSIP. Therefore, it was mandatory for central government departments to join. However, for local bodies, such as municipalities and schools, frame contracts only needed to be used as a term of reference. In the Scotland case, the
SPD recognized that a common platform and common approach to e-procurement was required in the Scottish public sector. In WA, the initial focus was on improving transparency in tendering processes and enabling large volumes of government purchases through “new” technologies. Gem Purchasing was launched in early 2000. CAMS became a “benchmark” agency, viewed as exhibiting best practices and cutting edge technology in e-procurement.
However, this leadership role was later interpreted in a consulting report as distracting the agency from the task at hand of managing contracts more effectively.
The initial administrative objectives were reinterpreted throughout the course of the program as the “idea” was taken from the “idea carriers,” interpreted locally, and subjected to ongoing evaluations in the case of Scotland and Italy or in the case of WA interrupted by frequent punctuations of government restructures which shifted priorities in government agenda items. CAMS merged with the Department of Commerce and Trade to form the
Department of Industry and Technology (DoIT), which was subsequently disbanded in early
2003. Responsibility for government procurement (including e-procurement initiatives) was passed to a new Government Procurement Division in the Department of Treasury and Finance
(DTF), and the IT innovation and policy area of the DoIT was shifted to a new Office of eGovernment in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. In each of the three cases, there were a broad range of social and technical actors involved located both within and external to the
“idea carriers.” For example, in Scotland, a heterogeneous network consisting of the NePS
Programme, technology providers, and consultants, instruments, and methodologies for buyer engagement and supplier adoption, buyers, and suppliers in their own right and databases of case studies were assembled to translate policy into practice.
Aligning and translating multiple interests and interpretations of nascent designs into particular ways of thinking and a willingness to act in accordance with prescriptions of central agencies required the enrollment of a sufficient body of allies. The way in which agencies were enrolled differed in each case. In the case of Scotland, the interests of local agencies were incorporated into the design of e-procurement, through devices such as the
“Scoping and Readiness Assessment” to establish the readiness of the buying organization for adopting e-procurement. In Italy, acts of persuasion incorporated the use of legal (e.g.,
Financial Act) and management artefacts (e.g., change management programs and weekly meetings). In both cases, this resulted in implementation plans that were specific to each

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buying organization’s situation and context providing incentives for the agencies to participate. However, with respect to Italy, the legal enforcement was subsequently removed in 2003 as it slowed the program. In contrast, WA had difficulties enrolling support due to ongoing structural reforms, which created competing priorities and institutionalized technologies, namely, the ERP systems that large agencies had invested in previously.
When confronted with the new e-procurement technologies, the larger agencies could not identify any benefits as their existing systems already provided similar functionality and they had already built relationships with their suppliers. Hence, claims of efficiencies and deriving better value in procurement activities had minimal probability of being converted into facts. This was in contrast to smaller agencies that had not expended large sums in technology investments and had less structural heterogeneity or those such as the Justice
Department that had a specific need at the time to improve their supply chain and payment functionality. Therefore, the three cases illustrate that varying events, artefacts, and actions may lead to the enrollment of key actors; the more stakeholders that are committed to the concept through enrollment, the higher the likelihood of the idea being translated into practice; and that the way that actors are enrolled and the idea of e-procurement mobilized within an institutional context may influence the unfolding of events as it proceeds by trial and error.
5.3. Traversing the obligatory passage points—negotiating and navigating government agencies and technology platforms
The notion of obligatory passage points captures two key issues arising from the cases. The first relates to the institutionalized technology platforms found in the WA case, whereby the larger government agencies had existing e-procurement functionality through their previous investments in ERP systems. As e-procurement was originally cast as a technology solution these agencies could not see the value in participating in GEM. In order to encourage these agencies to pass through the specific ERP passage, e-procurement needed to be promoted as something more than a technology. Thereby a new strategy and script was required to frame actors’ understandings and make sense of e-procurement, outside of a technology solution.
Hence, the meaning assigned to e-procurement was challenged and undermined by these agencies whereby the central agency found itself trying to traverse the obligatory passage point dictated by the institutionalized ERP artefact and processes.
The second obligatory passage point issue was identified in the form of the CONSIP agency in Italy and the Scottish Procurement Directorate in Scotland. These two organizations became the “spokesperson” for the national government, putting the desired ideas and models of eprocurement into place. These two organizations became the conduits through which the designs and raison d’être of e-procurement was articulated. By making themselves central to the development of e-procurement and persuading and incorporating interests of the agencies through inscribing devices discussed further in Section 5.4, they were able to build a stable network of aligned interests. However, this was considered an ongoing accomplishment requiring CONSIP and the Scottish Directorate to be inter-agent and inter-temporal coordinators of public e-procurement activity, where our discussion now turns.

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5.4. Inscribing the meaning of e-procurement: what matters and what becomes credible
Intrinsic to public e-procurement in each case was uncertainty due to the multiplicity of actors and the shifts and changes among them over time. Hence, notwithstanding the common perceived benefits of efficiency and effectiveness, ambiguity existed as to how these would be achieved. A range of artefacts inscribed different forms of knowledge and agency in mobilizing the interpretations and designs of e-procurement. At a policy level, whole of government reform programs, such as the public administration rationalization program in
Italy and the UK Gershon Report in Scotland, became vehicles of agency inscribing economic savings, transparent procurement processes, and skill development in public e-procurement.
The focus was on procurement practices themselves rather than the technology, as reflected in the “little e, big P” Scottish Procurement Directorate maxim. The Frame Contracts in Italy, inscribed legal, and contractual rules, enacting an institutional regime that was focused on encouraging technological innovations in “modernizing” public administration processes. In
Scotland, methodologies for buyer engagement and supplier adoption as well as databases of case study experiences became powerful devices in conceptualizing needs and supporting development and implementation practices. In the WA case, the e-procurement policy became inscribed as a technical innovation, which created difficulties in aligning interests of the different government agencies because of previous technology investments, continual structural changes and competing policy objectives. For example, the “buy local” initiative influenced the engagement of a local technology consortium in 2000 who had limited experiences with the IT architectures resulting in implementation delays and dissatisfied agencies. 6. Implications for research and practice
The guiding questions about the development of public e-procurement in this study were threefold: the nature and development of public e-procurement in localized situations over time; how public e-procurement practice formed the basis (or not) for government action and policy; and how the concept of public e-procurement policy itself was represented and mobilized in different contexts. At a theoretical level, we were also examining how the different and complementary analyses provided by ANT and the policy perspective, adopted in this study, may assist in understanding public e-procurement policy and practice and its future development. The implications arising from the examination of these questions is discussed in the following four sections.
6.1. Multiple representations, business designs, and practices
All three cases differed in how they represented public e-procurement activities and in what they viewed as important, notwithstanding a common objective of gaining efficiencies and effectiveness in government procurement. As the idea of public eprocurement moved from a single concept arising from policy initiatives, such as e-

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Government or modernizing public administration, to local level implementations it became separated as a name, business design, and practice. In each of the case sites, these aspects were open to varying interpretations and local translations over time. However, while the generic label e-procurement remained consistent across sites, shaped by broader policy initiatives and directives, business designs, and procurement practices were filled by local content resulting in varying forms and practices of e-procurement. Further, while attempts were made to mobilize public e-procurement in specific ways in particular settings, it was subjected to diverse and unexpected changes, which differed between each case and over time. Priorities shifted as progress was made (or not) towards particular objectives, new insights were acquired or unintended consequences arose. This suggests that project teams and policy makers need to be able to translate evolving insights acquired through learning and evaluation processes, unexpected change, or unintended consequences arising from practice and adapt these “new” understandings to the program objectives, policy, and implementation processes over time. Further it showed the need to pay attention to the spatial and temporal contexts where such activities take place and are understood. 6.2. Isomorphic pressures, punctuations, and sociotechnical change in policy implementations The case for public e-procurement in each site was comprised of isomorphic pressures in the form of broader governance and e-government policy directives and initiatives. However, as discussed in Section 5.1, while the label of e-procurement was taken from the idea carriers, it was reinterpreted locally and translated into heterogeneous networks of public agencies, consultants, suppliers, and polysemic artifacts such as technologies, standards, policies, and procurement practices; themselves changing over time. Hence, e-procurement was appropriated for different purposes and uses and had unintended consequences.
The cases also revealed how public e-procurement is highly subject to sociotechnical change. There was a continuous re-adjustment of implementation programs as a consequence of new insights, technologies, unintended consequences, and punctuating moments. In each case, there was a vertical accountability to the ministry where frames of reference for shaping and implementing the program were formulated and delegated to a central agency for implementation, such as CONSIP in Italy, the Scottish Directorate in Scotland, and CAMS in
WA (at the start). As seen in the case descriptions and findings, various translating moments took place during the implementation of e-procurement as it was interpreted in a wider scope.
However, in the case of WA the e-procurement agenda was interrupted by punctuating moments of structural reform where the ministry responsible for e-procurement changed, resulting in shifting priorities and a less stable program. This highlights the complexity in framing actionable policies and programs for IT enabled procurement innovations in environments of sociotechnical change, particularly where the frequency and probability for punctualisations is high, such as ongoing government reform programs involving one or more
“external” actor networks, and makes visible the challenges of policy making in delivering egovernment services.

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6.3. Innovative translators in multi-voiced policy contexts
Public e-procurement cut across departmental boundaries and involved a range of departments and agencies such as finance, procurement administration, IT, and e-government rather than a single department. In all three cases, there were several interest groups involved, such as the central agency project team, the departmental agencies, and other policy areas, such as regional development. The multivoice situation gave rise to conflicts. For example, in both
Italy and WA conflicts arose in terms of regional policies of “buy local” versus cost savings from having access to larger national markets for procuring goods and services.
As discussed in Sections 6.1 and 6.2, different parties may be part of the same actor network in support of the concept of e-procurement. However, the different ways in which it is mobilized in local contexts, with varying priorities and understandings of outcomes, construct the basis for the names and designs inscribed in practice. In Italy and Scotland, the central agency project team became innovative translators of these diverse meanings, influencing practice by working closely with the relevant groups of agencies and suppliers. Actions were chosen in a reflexive manner that relied upon and were based on building, providing, and maintaining e-procurement network relationships. Through their enrollment processes and with the support of inscription devices, such as supplier and agency implementation methodologies constructed from their fieldwork, they were able to achieve consensus with the approach, methods, and outcomes. Hence, constructing and pursuing e-procurement policy objectives that transcend boundaries and involve a plurality of meanings highlights the need for policy making and its implementation through networks of innovative translators.
However, in suggesting the need for flexible, creative, and responsive policy networks, it also raises the question of how equity, accountability, and democratic legitimacy is maintained in the provision of e-procurement services specifically and e-government initiatives more broadly. 6.4. Theoretical implications
At a theoretical level the paper reveals the usefulness of bringing together the two theoretical orientations of ANT and Colebatch’s social construct of policy as an effective means of analyzing complex sociotechnical change in policy development and the specific mobilizations of actors in local settings of public e-procurement. The sociology of translation provided a useful way of describing and explaining the context, ambiguity, and confusion as the heterogeneous network of public e-procurement accommodated, re-shaped, and in some instances rejected the policy initiative. Hence, the theoretical perspectives provide a way of examining the social construction of designs and practices which shifts attention from narrow, deterministic conceptions of technical functionality to a wider view based on the outcomes of interactions, and negotiations that took place at different levels of government over time.
Further, while the research framework was useful in following the interplay of policy imperatives, users’ needs, and the affordances of technology in practice it also provided the theoretical rigor required in the researchers’ field of practice. This implies a shift from the more functionalist views prevalent in current e-procurement research, which emphasize notions of

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demand for the technology to a more comprehensive representation of public e-procurement as complex sociotechnical change, unveiling the hurdles, risks, policy contradictions, and heterogeneous actors in its implementation.

7. Conclusion, limitations, and future directions
This paper has shown how e-procurement does not have a unitary identity or discrete associations but rather consists of multiple stakeholders and representations that manifest differently in varying situations and contexts. We have conceptualized this with the aid of ANT and Colebatch’s social construct of policy and illustrated this through three case studies. In doing so, our intention is not to suggest that these theories are the only or the most suitable in informing e-procurement policy and practice research. Rather, it is intended to be illustrative of the potential for such theories in contributing to and progressing thought in e-procurement policy and practice and e-government research more broadly, particularly in terms of how ideas are made sense of and translated into policy and practice.
7.1. Limitations
The study is not without its limitations. Firstly, not all networks were visible to the researchers due to in part to the level of access. We did not interview members from local agencies nor the supplier groups. Further, interviews were based on retrospective representations. There is a need for future work to focus attention on these other actor groups and examine how translation has continued by conducting in depth longitudinal case studies. 7.2. Future directions
One of the benefits widely reported in the e-procurement literature is having access to more reliable information for sourcing performance such as spend analysis, contract compliance, budgeting, and variance analysis and supplier performance. This assumes that such information is neutral, available, and in a usable form as a result of implementing eprocurement. Public e-procurement practices and the construction of information about these practices were shown in this study to arise not solely within the activities of central or local government agencies but in a broader field of suppliers, consultants, information technologies, diverse systems, and politics. How government agencies evaluate their e-procurement sourcing performance, given fragmented systems, and information, the ambiguity that sometimes surrounds the procurement organization, the interests, and politics that may be potentially infused in such information, and the unintended consequences that arise as implementation processes unfolds has been given limited attention. This awaits further investigation. Finally, theorizing public e-procurement policy and practice raises challenges, as it is multifaceted and interdisciplinary involving different theoretical, methodological, and

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empirical literatures such as information systems, procurement, supply chain management, public administration, and policy. Transferring insights from these divergent bases may be problematic because of different and potentially competing representations and hence implications for designing research. In addition to issues extending across disciplinary boundaries are those that extend across the boundaries of theory and practice. At a practical level we needed to “produce” actionable knowledge for the government’s redrafting of their eprocurement policy. Framing a course of action that is theoretically and methodologically rigorous is challenging as it raises questions about how our accounts of the policy process as researchers can be mobilized in that process, and where the researcher situates herself in the recounting of the “story.” Therefore, further work is needed in the design of interdisciplinary and action-oriented research.
7.3. Conclusion
The theoretical and analytical perspective adopted in this paper provides a valuable lens in which to examine IT enabled innovations in public procurement. Public e-procurement policy was understood as a wider public modernization and e-government program as well as embedded policy and technologies mediated by localized situations and translated to reflect local priorities and meanings. So what does this evidence imply for the future of policy making in e-procurement and e-government innovations more broadly? Examining the maneuvers of social and technical actors revealed not only how e-procurement constitutes and is constituted by a heterogeneous network of human and technical actors in e-procurement policy implementations, but also how actions are constrained and enabled through the use of eprocurement in diverse institutional contexts and how they evolve and change over time and in different locations. This assists in developing a deeper understanding of how actions are conducted and understood in the translation of policy into practice and vice versa, as well the complexity and uncertainty in managing sociotechnical change. We hope that the analysis presented in this paper may serve to stimulate further interest in pursuing sociotechnical change research in the domains of public e-procurement policy and practice and e-government research more broadly.
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Catherine Hardy is a Lecturer in Business Information Systems in the Faculty of Economics and Business at The
University of Sydney. She co-founded and is a member of the Information Policy and Practice Research Group.
Her research is in the areas of information assurance, IS risk management, strategic management of IT enabled business innovations, sociotechnical change, and the use of multiple methodologies and methods in IS research.

Sue Williams is Associate Professor of Business Information Systems in the Faculty of Economics and Business at
The University of Sydney. She co-founded and leads the Information Policy and Practice Research Group. Her research is in the areas of sociotechnical change, business information design, information management, and information policy and practice. She has extensive experience in the use of action research and participatory and reflexive research approaches to explore complex information design and management problems.