Using Institutionalism as a Lens to Examine ITIL Adoption and Diffusion

This study uses institutional theory as a lens to examine the increasing global diffusion of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the motivation of individual organisations to adopt the framework. The history of ITIL is provided to illustrate how the framework has travelled through time and space. The register of organisations certified to the international standard for IT service management is analysed. Case studies reveal factors influencing the decision by managers to adopt ITIL and provide evidence to illustrate that coercive, normative and mimetic pressures have influenced the isomorphic adoption and diffusion of ITIL