A perceptual bridge to adaptive use
The model explains how nested technological and human affordances shape what users perceive as feasible before they choose basic use, mending, or discovering.
§7.5, PDF pp.13–14; paper pp.12–13.
Conference Paper · 2016
Affordance-Based Conceptualization of Adaptive Use of Enterprise Systems
Best Paper Runner-Up · 2016
Official publication
Cite this work · APA 7
Wang, G., & Nandhakumar, J. (2016). Affordance-based conceptualization of adaptive use of enterprise systems. In Proceedings of the 24th European Conference on Information Systems (pp. 1–15). Association for Information Systems. https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2016_rp/182/
Explore the original contribution
Interactive paper explorationA constraint can help reveal a new way to use a system.
Starting point
The system appears to be the limit
Users cannot get IT staff to reprogramme a slow module.
The paper’s insight
Look at the combination
The module, shared data format, another tool, and available support jointly make a workaround possible.
What changes
Discovering becomes visible
Value can come from a new way of using existing features, as well as from mending the system.
The perspective the paper challenges
Technology-centred accounts explain what a system enables or prevents. The paper asks how users perceive possibilities when other people and multiple affordances are also involved.
The paper’s original contribution
The case shows that technological and human affordances combine into nested affordances. A limitation can contribute to a different feasible action through that combination; it does not enable the action it directly prevents.
Concept explorer
Follow the concepts.
Select a concept to see its role in this paper’s contribution.
Concept 01
Human affordances
Action possibilities offered by other actors surrounding a user; the paper brings these into its explanation of adaptive system use.
Concept 02
Constraining affordances
Limitations that become part of a combination enabling another course of action.
Concept 03
Mending
Actualising new working possibilities by changing system features.
Concept 04
Discovering
Actualising new working possibilities without changing system features.
Concept 05
Relational view of affordances
The relationships among affordances matter, beyond the capacity of each one separately.
Constraints participate in a larger possibility
The contribution lies in the relational account: an inability to reprogramme a module can help prompt a workable combination with another tool. The constraint alone is not sufficient.
§7.3–7.4, PDF pp.11–13; paper pp.10–12.
Bring IT staff into everyday work
The paper recommends increasing IT staff’s presence in business users’ daily system use and improving their cooperative relationship.
Practical implications, PDF p.14; paper p.13.
Recognise two kinds of improvement
Distinguish changing the system from discovering new uses. Record and circulate useful discoveries so that situated solutions are not overlooked later.
§7.1, PDF p.10; paper p.9.
Why this matters
Questions for research and practice.
Getting more value from an existing enterprise system can depend on the relationship between business users and IT staff, not simply on adding features.
Discuss this researchStudy context & evidence
Qualitative case study of an ongoing SAP enterprise-system project at one large chemical company, including 20 interviewees. The reported combinations explain this case; they are not universal causal rules.
Where to find these ideas in the paper
- Case and methodsPrinted pages 5–6
Post-implementation SAP project; interviews, documents, and observations.
- Original model and implicationsPrinted pages 9–13
Two adaptive uses, human and constraining affordances, relational model, practical implications.
This exploration is based on the author-supplied full text. It distinguishes the paper’s own contribution from established concepts it draws on. For formal citation, consult the publication.