Information infrastructure governance and windows of opportunity

In this paper we discuss the challenges of managing large-scale information infrastructures. Various management models, such as the IT governance model, propose structured approaches for management of an organization’s infrastructure. This paper argues both theoretically and empirically that such an approach to information infrastructure governance has its limitations. The paper is based on empirical material from three change processes in information infrastructures in the context of health care. We present case vignettes that illustrate how these processes evolved along unexpected trajectories, subject to factors beyond the control of management. To conceptualize these phenomena we draw on literature that conceptualize change as emerging from the meeting between multiple parallel streams of activities. The interactions between the various streams open up windows of opportunities that affect the information infrastructure development. We argue that such conceptualizations more realistically depict how large-scale information infrastructures evolve, and hence how they can be (or not be) managed