ABSTRACT
In a recent article in the journal of Information Systems Research, Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) list four different ways IT is conceptualized in the research that has been published in that journal. Namely, IT has been viewed as a computational mechanism that executes an algorithm or follows the logic of a model, IT is considered a tool that contributes to certain outcomes; IT is conceptualized by proxy, i.e. in terms of some particular aspects assumed important enough to be taken as surrogate measures, such as invested money; IT is seen as an ensemble of technical artefacts and socio-economic structures and activities.
