Tony Roberts
email: t.roberts@ids.ac.uk

Participatory Technologies: affordances for development

Keywords: Affordances, participation, development, HCI. IS, informatics, ICT4D. 1

This work-in-progress paper presents a line of research analysing the affordances of a range of participatory technologies for development. Affordances are the 'actionable possibilities' that are made possible (but not determined) by a technology. Participatory technologies are a range of technology-mediated practices used in participatory development initiatives, such as participatory video and participatory digital mapping. This research examines the relationship between technological artefacts, participatory processes and development outcomes and asks to what extent one contributes to another. As this is work-in-progress it is too early to draw firm conclusions however this paper identifies the need to distinguish between a participatory technology's technical features, its functional affordances and the affordances of participatory video practices. Affordances seem to provide a potential conceptual means to bridge the relatively technocentric and realist approaches of some IS, HCI and ICT4D with the relatively anthrocentric and constructivist approaches of some STS and development studies.

Introduction

The rapid proliferation, new functionalities and falling costs of mobile phones, laptops and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) has facilitated their increasing incorporation within development initiatives and has prompted the study of the application of ICTs for development (ICTD) [START_REF] Unwin | ICT4D: Information and Communications for Development[END_REF]. The accelerating adoption of digital tools by practitioners of 'participatory development' has given rise to a range of new tools and practices that Robert Chambers has called 'participatory technologies' [START_REF] Chambers | To Know Better: reflection for development, Rugby[END_REF]. In this research the term participatory technologies refers to the use of digital information and communication technologies in participatory development processes. The main aim is to better understand the relationship between technological artefacts, participatory processes and development outcomes.

That technology is increasingly important in development is generally accepted. However the precise ways in which technology inhibits or contributes to development outcomes remains the subject of much debate and research. In the existing literature on the use of information and communications technology for development (ICT4D) it has been argued that the technology itself is generally under-theorised [START_REF] Orlikowski | Desperately Seeking the IT in IT Research: a call to theorize the IT artifact[END_REF], that the particular conceptualisation of development being used is rarely explicit [START_REF] Walsham | Research on Information Systems in Developing Countries: current landscapes and future prospects[END_REF] [START_REF] Walsham | Development Informatics in a Changing World: Reflections from ICTD 2010/2012[END_REF], and that the specific relationship of ICT to development is often uncritically assumed [START_REF] Avgerou | Discourses on ICT and Development[END_REF]. This research addresses these issues by making theoretical contributions in relation to the technology itself, making explicit the conceptualisation of development being used, and by presenting a critical analysis of the relationship between the technology, participatory processes and development outcomes. It achieves this without falling into technological determinism by grounding its analysis a critical realist ontology [START_REF] Baskar | A Realist Theory of Science[END_REF] and by using the concept of affordances in a way that takes seriously the role of technology in shaping society without ever losing sight of the way that technology is itself social shaped [START_REF]The Social Shaping of Technology[END_REF].

Matter Matters

Since the 1980s much Science Technology and Society research was part of a project to correct what it considered to be a technological determinism in the existing literature [START_REF] Pinch | The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts[END_REF]. This body of work sought to theorise technology as social shaped and located in mutually constituted socio-technical assemblages of human and non-human actants [START_REF] Latour | Reassembling the Social: an introduction to Actor Network Theory[END_REF]. So successful was this push back that Orlikowski argued convincingly that technology was the 'missing mass' in much Information Systems (IS) research [START_REF] Orlikowski | Desperately Seeking the IT in IT Research: a call to theorize the IT artifact[END_REF]. From Orlikowski's perspective a failure to take seriously technology's materiality necessarily limits a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between information systems and social change. Following Orlikowski I argue that 'matter matters' in ICT4D research; that design and materiality have consequences for users. However any researcher that takes seriously technology's materiality is compelled to mount a defense against the accusation of technological determinism. Following MacKensie and Wajcman [START_REF]The Social Shaping of Technology[END_REF] I argue that it is perfectly consistent to recognize both that technology is shaped by society and that technology shapes society; that they are mutually constitutive. The ontological position of critical realism [START_REF] Baskar | A Realist Theory of Science[END_REF] is helpful in this regard as it recognizes that the physical world is Real at the same time as accepting that all human experience of the Real is necessarily partial, subjective and socially constructed. This ontological position effectively collapses the realism vs constructivism dichotomy. Critical realism allows us to recognize the Real without falling into technological determinism. This research is grounded in such an ontology.

Participatory Development

Participatory development practices derive their logic from a particular agency-based conceptualisation of human development [11; 12]. Orthodox development economics often reduces the evaluation of development success to econometric quantitative indicators such as GDP per person. Southern activists proposed a radically different 'bottom-up' normative approach in which disadvantaged people themselves determine the priorities of development [START_REF] Esteva | The Development Dictionary[END_REF]. This agency-based participatory approach to human development is the main heterodox approach to development. Distinctive features of this approach include its emphasis on the participation of disadvantaged people in epistemological processes that enable them to define, articulate and voice their own development concerns and priorities. This research is informed by this conceptualization of development in which disadvantaged people themselves are the authors, architects and arbiters of their own projects of development.

Affordances

This research is concerned to disentangle and better understand the complex interrelationship between the social and technical elements of participatory technology use in human development. The concept of affordances has some distinct advantages in this regard.

Affordances are the 'actionable possibilities' invited, enabled or allowed by a technology [START_REF] Gibson | The Theory of Affordances in Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing[END_REF]. A cup for example has the actionable possibility of conveying tea for drinking. The material properties of a cup, its handle, its waterproof material and handy size matter; they invite and enable the action tea holding and conveyance. It is important to note that whilst affordances both enable and constrain the range of action possibilities they never determine; agency and choice remain. A person could use their agency to appropriate the cup for the action of pen and pencil storage. Costall [START_REF] Costall | Socialising Affordances[END_REF] would distinguish tea holdabilty as the 'canonical affordance' of a cup i.e. the conventional and normative actionable possibility which socialisation has normalised for cups. The concept of affordances has not previously been systematically applied to participatory video. Participatory video is a social process in which non-experts co-produce and film about an issue that concerns them [START_REF] Lunch | Insights into Participatory Video[END_REF]. The existing literature often notes that participatory video is efficacious in stimulating increasing participant, agency and voice [START_REF] Shaw | Participatory video: A practical guide to using video creatively in group development work[END_REF] all of which are considered valued human development outcomes [START_REF] Sen | Development as Freedom[END_REF].

The next section will review the existing literature and establish the theoretical framework adopted in this research. Although affordance theories are relatively well developed in the fields of Human Computer Interface (HCI), Information Systems (IS) and informatics, the application of affordance theory is relatively scarce in the development studies literature. Conversely, participation theories are well established in development studies literature but are relatively under-represented in the ICT4D literature. This research anticipates that a better understanding of the affordances of participatory technologies for development will act as one bridge between these research communities.

Section 3. considers the research methodology adopted in this research. By conducting desk research, interviewing leading practitioners, convening a one day conference, and by commissioning new research on existing and emerging participatory technologies this research will produce new knowledge and analysis and make new theoretical contributions on the specific affordances of technologies and practices of participatory development.

orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-246X

Although this is work in progress paper Section 4. presents some preliminary and tentative findings, using participatory video as an explanatory example. The affordances of the video technology itself gives rise to functional affordances but the research finds that it is only when these affordances are mediated through the social mechanisms of participatory practices that development outcomes are evidenced. The research also suggests that the nature of the development outcomes are contingent on other contextual factors not least the capacity and intent of the process facilitator(s).

Existing Literature

Development

Dominant models of development emphasise 'economic development' evaluated by means of proxy measures such as GDP income per head. Challenging this approach as reductionist heterodox models emphasise 'human development' [START_REF] Sen | Development as Freedom[END_REF]. Advocates of human development often argue that a person has reason to value things that cannot be reduced to economic indicators such as political freedom, well-being and personal agency. From this perspective a person's agency as a protagonist in their own development projects and their ability to 'voice' their own preferences and priorities is axiomatic elements of the kind of development that people have reason to value [START_REF] Sen | Development as Freedom[END_REF]. Post-colonial independence leaders such as President Nyerere of Tanzania argued that, "people can't be developed, they can only develop themselves" [START_REF] Nyerere | Freedom and Development[END_REF]. For this reason adherents of participatory development often argue normatively that individuals have reason to value participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of any development initiatives that affect them. This heterodox 'bottom-up' process of enabling people to determine and to attain their own selfdefined objectives [START_REF] Esteva | The Development Dictionary[END_REF] was at the heart of Freire's [START_REF] Freire | Education the Practice of Freedom, London, Writers and Readers[END_REF] work in Brazil, as well as that of Orlando Fals-Borda in Colombia [START_REF] Fals-Borda | Investigating Reality in Order to Transform it: the Colombian Experience[END_REF], Rajesh Tandon in India [START_REF] Tandon | Participatory Research and the Empowerment of People, Convergence[END_REF] and Swantz in East Africa [START_REF] Swantz | ) Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly? Participatory Research in Development[END_REF]. Freire provided practical guidance on the group process of conscientisation by which disadvantaged people can better understand their circumstances, identify the root causes of the problems that they experience and act together to transform the situation [START_REF] Freire | Pedagogy of Hope[END_REF]. Such participatory development processes constituted what Tandon [START_REF] Tandon | Participation, Citizenship and Democracy: reflections on 25 years of PRIA[END_REF] claimed represented a distinctly Southern approach to development practice and research. Participatory development approaches and methods were popularised in Anglophone development studies and practice by, among others, Robert Chambers [START_REF] Chambers | Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last, Rugby, Practical Action[END_REF] and form part of the conceptual framework for most of the canonical texts on participatory video [16; 17]. These ideas were later extended by the Nobel-prize winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen as part of his agency-based conception of human development.

Sen [START_REF] Sen | Development as Freedom[END_REF] wrote, "With adequate social opportunities, individuals can effectively shape their own destiny and help each other. They need not be seen primarily as the passive recipients of cunning development programs. There is indeed a strong rationale for recognizing the positive role of free and sustained agency"

This agency-based model of participatory development in which disadvantaged people are the authors, architects and arbiters of their own development priorities and projects, is the conceptualisation of development adopted in this research. This raises the question of what counts as participation in this research?

Participation

In the 1990s participatory development approaches were widely adopted by mainstream development institutions and funders like UNDP and the World Bank. Some scholars argued that this resulted in a dilution and corruption of the original radical intent of participation. Critiques of tokenistic and sham forms of participation were a feature of the contributions to the edited volume The Tyranny of Participation [START_REF]Participation: the New Tyranny[END_REF].

Whilst not seeking to negate this valuable critique, in From Tyranny to Transformation, Hickey and Mohan orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-246X [START_REF] Hickey | Participation: From Tyranny to Transformation? London[END_REF] attempted to recover and re-politicise participation and to clarify the ways and circumstances in which participation could again be emancipatory and transformational. It was argued persuasively that this could be accomplished by strategies such as embedding participation within wider political processes [START_REF] Kelley | Confrontation with Power: moving beyond the tyranny of safety in participation[END_REF], and by returning to a focus on building critical consciousness and agency into participatory development through Freirian practices such as conscientisation where participants critique the social conditions that oppress them and use their collective agency to challenge the situation [START_REF] Waddington | Falling Forward: Going Beyond PRA and Imposed Forms of Participation in Hickey[END_REF]. This research draws on these later approaches whilst recognising that participatory technologies have potential both to reproduce existing unequal social relationships as well as to transform them. This research therefore seeks to unravel the particular circumstances in which digital technologies and participatory practices can be emancipatory and transformative.

Participation is not a binary concept. Various scholars have argued for different scales of participation along a range from relatively weak to relatively strong forms of participation. Arnstein's [START_REF] Arnstein | A Ladder of Citizen Participation[END_REF] ladder of participation is the archetype and ranges from 'non-participation' through degrees of tokenistic participation up to degrees of real power through which citizens can take effective control of the participatory development process. White [START_REF] White | Depoliticising Development: The Uses and Abuses of Participation[END_REF] uses a variant range extending from nominal participation to transformative participation.

For this research I have developed a range of 'Elements of Participation' to reflect the constituent elements of the agency-based conception of participatory development adopted in this research. At the 'weak' end of the range of participation is 'taking part in an activity' which most participatory technologies can be expected to involve. At the 'strong' end of the scale is 'achieving power reversals' which few participatory technologies may be expected to achieve. It is not proposed that technologies are considered to be participatory technologies only if all elements are maximally present; maximal presence is not necessarily expected in any case. It is only proposed that the elements provide a relevant reference point for tracing the relationship of a technology's affordances to the elements of participatory development.

Elements of Participation Scale

Achieving

Participatory Technologies

In this research the term participatory technologies refers to the use of digital ICTs in participatory development practices. However the use of participatory methodologies in development practices pre-date the introduction of digital technologies by several decades. Participatory video practice dates back to at least 1967 [START_REF] Snowden | Eyes See, Ears Hear: supplement to a film under the same title[END_REF], participatory mapping to the 1980s and participatory monitoring and evaluation to the 1990s [START_REF] Guijt | Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation: Learning From Change[END_REF]. The existing literature on (pre-digital) participatory methodologies is a rich source of learning for practitioners and researchers of participatory ICT4D. It is important that ICT4D research and practice is mindful of the continuities between participatory methodologies and participatory technologies as well as the discontinuities.

Participatory video has a long history as an analogue participatory technology using celluloid film before it was later digitised and, even more recently, became possible entirely on mobile phones [START_REF]What is Cellfilm: Integrating Mobile Phone Technology into Participatory Visual Research and Activism[END_REF]. Participatory mapping was previously practiced by drawing on the earth, and later on paper (and these continue to be appropriate practices in many settings) but now also makes use of mobile phones, GPS, satellites, GIS software and unmanned aerial vehicles or 'drones' [START_REF] Tushev | Documenting illegal land occupancy using drones[END_REF]. Previously analogue participatory methodologies that are now migrating to digital technologies are 'digital immigrants' whereas some are 'digital natives' [START_REF] Prensky | Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants[END_REF] meaning that they were originated as digital methods without clear analogue precedents. Examples of this later group include online platforms for citizen participation in satellite-based environmental monitoring and 'crisis mapping' or the real time crowdsourcing of humanitarian data from the public using mobile phones and social media.

The types of participatory technologies considered by this research include participatory video, participatory photography, participatory digital storytelling, participatory digital community radio, participatory digital mapping, participatory digital monitoring and evaluation, participatory civic engagement technologies, participatory budgeting, participatory software development, and participatory political mobilisation. Whilst 'The Arab Spring' is often offered as an example of social media's role in stimulating political participation, the 2009 Obama, and 2016 Trump campaigns can also be considered to be examples of participatory online building of communities of political agency for radical social change. If it is argued that some technologies have advantages when it comes to stimulating participation then the questions arises as to what exactly are the technical features or participatory practices that contribute toward (or inhibit) human development. The next section explores the concept of affordances as a means to do so.

Affordances

The concept of affordances can be traced to its use by the visual psychologist James Gibson [START_REF] Gibson | The Theory of Affordances in Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing[END_REF] to refer to the actionable possibilities suggested when viewing an object. Donald Norman [START_REF] Norman | The Design of Everyday Things[END_REF] later applied the term to technology design using it to signify the particular aspects of a technology that invite, allow or enable a user to act in a particular way [START_REF] Lidwell | Universal Principles of Design[END_REF]. The design of a cup can be understood as inviting or enabling us to make use of its actionable properties as a drinking vessel. A fork does not invite the same use; we perceive the two technologies as having different actionable properties. Affordances are not however determinate; we can choose to interpret a cup as a pen holder. Hutchby's defines affordances as having both "functional and relational aspects which frame, while not determining, the possibilities for agentic action in relation to an object" [START_REF] Hutchby | Technologies, texts and affordances[END_REF]. Hutchby's definition requires us to pay attention to both the functional aspect of affordances that are based in the object's material form as well as the conventional boundaries of acceptable use that we learn as part of socialisation, which are situated. Zheng and Yu [START_REF] Zheng | Affordances of social media in collective action: the case of Free Lunch for Children in China[END_REF] use the example of chopsticks as artefacts whose affordances can be expected to be self-evident to most Chinese adults. However members of another society who have not learned that 'canonical' affordance may (mis)interpret chopsticks as a plaything; they would not however interpret them as a drinking vessel. The point here is that artifacts are always open to interpretive flexibility [START_REF] Pinch | The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts[END_REF] but that their materiality places limits on that interpretation. There is always a thing being interpreted, and its 'matter matters'. Hutchby argues convincingly that "Ignoring the different affordances which constrain both the possible meanings and the possible uses of technologies denies us the opportunity of empirically analysing precisely what the 'effects' and 'constraints' associated with technological forms are" [START_REF] Hutchby | Technologies, texts and affordances[END_REF]. My intention in employing the concept of affordances is to allow such an empirical investigation. Faynard and Weeks [START_REF] Fayard | Affordances for practice[END_REF] use the concept of affordances to integrate these appreciations of both the real materially-situated properties of an object and orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-246X

the scope for interpretative flexibility in relational use. This critical realist understanding of affordances is the one that informs this research.

In the context of agency-based conceptions of human development adopted in this research it is useful to understand a technology's affordances as those properties that invite or enable aspects of a user's agency; the way a person uses the technology to act in the world. The affordances of a technology can be either positive or negative in relation to a person's agency; features of a technology can either constrain or enable action on the part of a user. The viewability of text messages may be advantageous to a deaf person but disadvantageous to person who is print disabled. With respect to participatory video the multi-mediality of video mediated processes can enable print-disabled people to participate in social discourse, to voice their perspective and to retain editorial control over the way that they are represented. This is an example of the use of technology in participatory practices to produce development outcomes that individuals have reason to value. The next section outlines the methodology used in this research.

This research anticipated being able to trace the affordances of a particular technology (in the left-hand column in Table 1.), via the particular Elements of Participation that they afforded (in the central column), to named development outcomes (in the right-hand column). Two examples are illustrated in the table. In the first example it could be argued that as video technology affords users the ability to project their selfauthored films to audiences it contributes to amplifying their voice. In the second example, as has already been mentioned, the rewind and re-edit affordances of video afford participants the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and to co-produce new knowledge and learning.

Methodology

This research uses a mixture of qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews and three research phases. The first phase was desk research to review the existing literature on participation, participatory development, participatory technologies and affordances. Phase one also includes 16 semi-structured interviews with global scholars of participation, participatory technologies and affordances. Phase two involves the convening of a one day workshop of participatory technology specialists to inform the key research questions. New research will be commissioned for a special issue on the affordances of participatory technologies for development.

In phases one and two contributors will be asked to answer 'the technology question' i.e. what are the functional affordances of the technology that inhibit, invite, allow or enable participatory practices? They will also be asked the 'participation question' i.e. what 'Elements of Participation' are evident in their participatory processes and to which practice affordances are they attributable?

The third research phase will involve analysis of the above data to disentangle the social and material interconnections. By interrogating each participatory practice it is intended to shed new light on the nature of the relationships between technologies, affordances and participatory development. By doing so the research will provide new empirical and theoretical resources for the application of digital technologies in development. Although this paper uses the example of participatory video the research will analyse the affordances of a broad range of participatory technologies to derive theoretically generalizable findings. Given the rapid proliferation and combination of participatory technologies any such lessons will be potentially valuable.

Findings & Discussion

Preliminary findings of this work-in-progress suggest that it is possible to map technology and affordances to development outcomes. The relationships however are more complicated than originally anticipated in a number of respects. Whilst the re-edit and project functions of the video camera do give rise to particular affordances they do not contribute directly to development outcomes; they appear to do so only through multiple social mechanisms. On one level the reasons for this are evident; other social forces are entangled. As Gibson himself emphasized, affordances do not determine; they do not make us do things in and of themselves [START_REF] Gibson | The Theory of Affordances in Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing[END_REF]. Affordances are only action possibilities not sufficient causes. For this reason we can expect different people to use the same video camera in different ways and with different outcomes. Development outcomes cannot be read off technology in a deterministic way. The research has begun to shed light on the complex ways in which technologies' affordances are mediated not only by the social mechanisms of participatory video but also by the capacity and intent of the process facilitator and participants [START_REF] Roberts | Women's Use of Participatory Video Technology to Tackle Gender Inequality in Zambia's ICT Sector[END_REF].

Functional Affordances vs Practice Affordances

One way to begin to capture these differences is to make a conceptual distinction between the functional affordances arising from technological artifact itself (in this case the video camera) and the practice affordances arising from the social processes being employed (the participatory video practices). Figure 1. illustrates this division set within the wider context of this research. It should be emphasized that this is work-in-progress and this diagram is not presented as indicative of final research findings but rather as a schematic representation of research thus far using the example of participatory video [START_REF] Roberts | Critical Agency in ICT4D[END_REF]. Importantly the diagram illustrates that technologies are themselves socially shaped [START_REF]The Social Shaping of Technology[END_REF]. These processes do take place not in a social vacuum but rather in a social context that dynamically co-constructs the technological artefacts, affordances and development outcomes (as indicated by the six arrows).

The left hand column in Figure 1. shows some of the technical features of a video camcorder. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list but rather illustrative examples. These technical features matter. Technical functions of the video camera such as edit and project give rise to the perception of actionable possibilities such as viewability and editability in the second column of the diagram. These functional affordances enable (and limit) the range of action possible with the technology (without determining or removing the scope for agency). Functional affordances do not themselves constitute development outcomes. They can however be drawn upon in participatory video processes in ways that may subsequently contribute to development outcomes.

Figure 1. shows that the functional affordances of video are socialized in the collective processes of participatory video film-making. Participatory video process typically involve a group of socially disadvantaged people in the collective process of making a film about issues of concern to them. The film orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-246X maybe intended as advocacy to raise awareness on a neglected issue or to be viewed by distant decision makers to change policy on a subject of concern.

The third column illustrate some process features of participatory video. These are also significant as they give rise to the perception of the actionable possibilities for participatory video illustrated in column four. Participatory processes such as group deliberation and reflection enable actionable possibilities of participatory video such as enacting social awareness and formation of shared intent for social action. This is not a claim that participatory video causes or determines such outcomes. The only claim being made is that participatory video practices allow these action possibilities without determining them.

The affordances of participatory video practices are necessary but insufficient to determine wider development outcomes. The making of a single film may be meaningful to the individuals involved; it may increase their sense of self-efficacy and social awareness but in and of themselves they are unlikely to generate wider social change. To co-constitute social change participatory video practices will generally need to be embedded in wider social change processes [27; 28].

In summary Figure 1. illustrates how the technical features of video make possible (without determining) its functional affordances, which are then socialised in the collective processes of participatory video. This relationship is then mirrored in the way that the process features of participatory video make possible (without determining) its practice affordances, which may then be socialised in wider development processes to co-generate development outcomes.

Conclusion

Based on this initial research it is argued that the concept of affordances offers a viable means to better understand the complex relationship between technologies, affordances, social mechanism and development outcomes. By continuing to pursue this research-in-progress across a range of established and newly emerging participatory technologies this research intends to shed new light on the relationships between technologies, affordances, social mechanisms and development outcomes. As Hutchby [39; 442] argues academics must examine the ways in which "social processes and the 'properties' of technological affordances are inter-related and inter-twined and need to analyse the ways in which they are".

orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-246X

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Affordances of Participatory Video for Development (adapted from Zheng and Yu).

Table 1 .

 1 Elements of Participation orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-246X

	power reversals	Relatively Strong
	Acting together for transformation
	Naming injustice and root causes
	Planning action for transformation
	Identification of power interests
	Group analysis of causes of inequality
	Voicing of experience & opinion
	Reflection about social circumstances and self
	Taking part in an activity	Relatively Weak


Sherah Kurnia
email: sherahk@unimelb.edu.au

Dora Constantinidis
email: dorac@unimelb.edu.aup.seddon@unimelb.edu.au

Alison Parkes
email: a.parkes@latrobe.edu.au

Toomas Tamm
email: toomas.tamm@unsw.edu.au

Peter Seddon

A Preliminary Testing of the Strategic IT Decision Making Model

Keywords: Strategic decision making, Strategic IT decision, Strategic Decision Making process, Influence Factors, SITDMM, ERP

) proposed a Strategic IT Decision Making Model (SITDMM) based on a comprehensive literature synthesis. However, the SITDMM had not been tested with empirical data. This researchin-progress paper conducted a preliminary testing of the SITDM model by using a qualitative approach. An initial interview was conducted with a senior executive who was involved in a strategic IT decision at an Australian pharmaceutical company. The preliminary testing of the model demonstrates the usefulness of the SITDMM in capturing key influencing factors affecting the strategic decision making process in the case organization. This paper demonstrates that the Top Management Team played the most significant role in influencing the extent to which the SITDMM process was analytical, intuitive, and political. These factors influenced the final decision outcome. Future research will include the analysis of more strategic IT decision cases in order to further test the SITDMM and provide a framework which organizations can use to better assess and therefore manage factors influencing strategic IT decision making processes.

Introduction

Organizations in both developed and developing countries have adopted and implemented various technological innovations over time to stay competitive. Some technological innovations within organizations are strategic in nature because they have a broad impact across the entire organization and have short and long-term implications to the overall competitiveness. Such technologies typically require significant expenditure and need to be implemented over an extended period of time affecting a large number of stakeholders. Enterprise System (ES) applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are an example of strategic IT applications.

Implementing strategic IT applications, however, is a risky undertaking due to the size and complexity involved and the high investment required. Many studies show that the failure rate of ES implementation is significantly high in both developed and developing countries [START_REF] Huang | ERP implementation issues in advanced and developing countries[END_REF]. Many projects experienced cost overruns and struggled to gain the expected benefits from the ES investment, while some projects were altogether abandoned after significant expenditure had been made [START_REF] Davenport | Mission Critical -Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems[END_REF] [3] [START_REF] Schniederjans | Successful ERP implementation: An integrative model[END_REF]. Most existing studies have associated such failures with ineffective project management without exploring decision making related to the associated IT projects [START_REF] Shang | Assessing and managing the benefits of enterprise systems: The business manager's perspective[END_REF] [START_REF] Staehr | An Explanatory Framework for Achieving Business Benefits from ERP Systems[END_REF].

The decisions made by senior executives regarding strategic IT implementations including what, when and how the systems are to be implemented are likely to impact the ensuing outcomes. If all aspects of the decision making process are systematically accounted for and better managed, this may lead to more successful outcomes. Nevertheless, there are many challenges surrounding the determination of costs, benefits, risks and long-term implications on the future state of technologies, processes and management of the organization [START_REF] Elbanna | Strategic Decision-making: Process Perspectives[END_REF]. Furthermore, strategic IT decisions made by senior executives are often constrained by previous decisions which may have been made by different management teams with different sets of goals and interests [START_REF] Shepherd | The Influence of Context on the Strategic Decision-Making Process: A Review of the Literature[END_REF]. Additionally, within the decision making team, there are personal biases and preferences that each member brings to the table which further complicate the decision making process [START_REF] Carpenter | Upper Echelons Research Revisited: Antecedents, Elements, and Consequences of Top Management Team Composition[END_REF]. Organizations rarely effectively manage such a variety of factors that influence their strategic IT decision making processes and associated outcomes. Therefore, a better understanding of strategic IT decision making including the process and key influence factors would provide further insights and potentially help decision makers establish necessary measures to avoid future failures.

Despite the importance of strategic IT decision making processes and their significant consequences on organizations, there has been limited IS research investigating the major factors influencing such processes. In addressing this knowledge gap, [START_REF] Tamm | A Model of Strategic IT Decision-Making Processes[END_REF] proposed the Strategic IT Decision Making Model (SITDMM) that captures key factors influencing the strategic IT decision making process. This model, however, has not been tested and hence the applicability and comprehensiveness of the factors captured are still questionable. To contribute to the existing research efforts in enhancing the current understanding of strategic IT decision making, our study aims to investigate a strategic IT decision made by a large Australian organization to test the SITDMM. The key research question addressed is: To what extent does the SITDMM capture key factors affecting a strategic IT decision making process? To address the research question, we conducted a qualitative research involving an interview with a senior executive from a large Australian organization and reviews of its relevant organizational documents. In this research-in-progress paper we include the findings of a preliminary testing of the SITDMM by examining the key factors that influenced a strategic IT decision process. This paper will focus on how this qualitative analysis was conducted for an Australian pharmaceutical company by providing examples of coded statements from the interview. The outline of this paper is as follows. In the next section, the SITDMM is presented with the 7 propositions. Then the research methodology and the context of the case organization are described. Findings are then presented and discussed. The paper concludes by summarizing key observations obtained from this study and explains the next step of the study.

The Strategic IT Decision Making Model

The SITDMM posits that strategic IT decision making processes are influenced by a number of key factors. [START_REF] Nooraie | Factors influencing strategic decision-making processes[END_REF] had previously delineated similar factors, by conducting a literature review, in relation to how these affected generic strategic decision-making. However, the factors identified by [START_REF] Nooraie | Factors influencing strategic decision-making processes[END_REF] had not been developed into an overarching model with propositions linked to the decision making process and final decision outcome. [START_REF] Tamm | A Model of Strategic IT Decision-Making Processes[END_REF] extended the results of their own literature review to develop the SITDMM with propositions that could be more easily tested on interview datasets.

The key factors that affect strategic-decision-making processes are presented by the model in Figure 1 and are grouped as 1) the decision context; 2) individuals and teams involved; and 3) the source and characteristics of the available information. The SITDMM seeks to capture the extent to which the strategic IT decision making process is analytical, intuitive and political by addressing the key influence factors. Even though similar factors have been previously discussed to some extent in the IS literature, no model comparable to the SITDMM had been derived until that presented by [START_REF] Tamm | A Model of Strategic IT Decision-Making Processes[END_REF]. The SITDMM in Figure 1 presents factors that can impact the strategic IT decision process and subsequent decision. The influence of each factor can be positive or negative based on the context. The propositions make no claims about the outcomes of the influence of those factors shown in the SITDMM. The model only suggests that those factors are a relevant part of the decision process. Each module component of the factors and related propositions are briefly described below summarizing the previous literature research. The Decision Context influences the actual strategic IT decision made. Top Management Team is the group of senior managers and their advisors who make the final decision in terms of the strategic directions of the organization. The team-level characteristics refer to the collective characteristics of the decision team, such as team diversity (demographic, cognitive), size, team dynamics and routines, behavioural integration, and power distribution. The decision-maker characteristics refer to the individual characteristics of each decision team member that influence their perceptions of the decision problem, approaches to problem solving, and ability to influence others, e.g., cognitive style, personality, personal values, aspirations, incentives, and self-confidence [8] [9]. It is posited that: P3: The Top Management Team influence the nature of the strategic IT decision-making processes in an organization, especially the extent to which such processes are analytical, intuitive, and political. P4: The Top Management Team influence the actual strategic IT decision made. Decision-Specific Characteristics refer to the characteristics of, and information relevant to, the specific strategic decision. The decision-matter characteristics include perceived decision importance, time pressure, motive (opportunity or threat), complexity, and politicality [START_REF] Shepherd | The Influence of Context on the Strategic Decision-Making Process: A Review of the Literature[END_REF]. Informational factors refer to the information relevant to the strategic decision that is provided to or encountered by some or all of the decision team members and that affect their understanding of the decision problem and/or their preferred course of action. Sources of such information include internal analyst reports, opinions of peers, consultant advice, precedents and competitor actions, and press reports on technologies, their adoption, and economic outlook [START_REF] Tamm | A Model of Strategic IT Decision-Making Processes[END_REF]. It is posited that:

P5: The Decision-specific Characteristics of a strategic proposal under consideration influence the nature of the Strategic IT Decision-making processes, especially the extent to which they are analytical, intuitive, and political. P6: The Decision-specific Characteristics of a strategic proposal under consideration influence the actual strategic IT decision made. Therefore, changes in the Decision-specific Characteristics of a strategic IT proposal under consideration may result in the Top Management Team making different strategic IT decisions.

Nature of the Strategic IT Decision-making Process refers to the characterisation of the decision process under three key dimensions [START_REF] Tamm | A Model of Strategic IT Decision-Making Processes[END_REF]: (1) Analytical-Rational, the degree to which the process relies on detailed rational analysis of relevant factors, (2) Intuitive-Judgmental, the degree to which the decision team members rely on personal and/or collective intuition or "gut feel" in reaching their final decision [START_REF] Akinci | Intuition in Management Research: A Historical Review[END_REF], and (3) Political-Bargaining, the degree to which the process is characterized by political behaviour (e.g., coalitions, information tactics, use of external advisors) [START_REF] Elbanna | Strategic Decision-making: Process Perspectives[END_REF], [START_REF] Eisenhardt | Strategic Decision-making[END_REF]. Therefore it is posited that: P7: The extent to which strategic IT decision-making processes in an organization are analytical, intuitive, and political, influences the strategic IT decisions that emerge from the process.

Research Methodology

In-depth qualitative research is considered appropriate to investigate strategic IT decision making which is complex in nature [START_REF] Patton | Qualitative research[END_REF]. For our initial test of the key factors posited by the SITDMM an interview with a senior executive who was involved in a strategic IT decision at a large organization was conducted. For this research-inprogress paper, overall results for the initial analysis are presented as part of a preliminary testing of the SITDMM. The organization is a large pharmaceutical company. Current industry trends and other organizational documents (organizational chart, reports, etc.) were used to contextualize the comments provided by the interviewee [START_REF] Walsham | Interpretive case studies in IS research: Nature and method[END_REF]. Three coders with IS Academic backgrounds then coded statements from the interview transcript of the CFO who was interviewed for this research. Since information in the interview was provided in a narrative format, we considered the narrative analysis methodology to help improve our coding. Narrative analysis can be applied to assist with interpretation of the social context of interviewees [START_REF] Reissman | Narrative Analysis[END_REF]. The strength of evidence for the model was derived by coding statements [START_REF] Strauss | Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory[END_REF] in the interview transcript in relation to the seven SITDMM propositions. Where only one statement in the transcript was found, a score of 1 was assigned; 2 was assigned for more than two statements, and zero (0) was assigned for no evidence. All results were then correlated and cross-coded. Rigor is addressed by following the guidelines by [START_REF] Yin | Case study research: Design and methods[END_REF] and [START_REF] Patton | Qualitative research[END_REF]. The research validity is further enhanced by conducting a thorough analysis of the relevant literature to ensure that we capture the valid factors and concepts, establishing chain of evidence through the use of case study repository, and a careful selection of the research participant. Reliability is ensured through the use of interview protocol and a pilot study with 2 senior executives to ensure the interview questions are appropriate.

Case Description

A major Australian pharmaceutical company, which for anonymity is referred to as PHARMA, is used to present an example of how the analysis was conducted in more detail. The increasing competition in the pharmaceutical industry has made modern ERP and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems with demand forecasting capability critical to remaining competitive. With increasing changes to expectations of how the demand and supply of pharmaceuticals is managed, careful consideration of operating with an appropriate supply chain framework is needed by all pharmaceutical companies. Given PHARMA's large distribution network across Australia, appropriate access to information about supply and demand is essential. However the core module of the ERP was only just meeting their basic supply chain demands but could not provide demand forecasting and planning. The reliance on this core system meant that the company remained largely reactive rather than proactively delivering stock to the pharmacy outlets. PHARMA needed to increase their capability to forecast demand and create more predictive and proactive provisioning of supplies. PHARMA was confronted with two options: (1) implement a completely new ERP system or (2) upgrade. The final decision to upgrade their existing ERP was based on information provided by managers who were largely trusted by the decision making team.

The key decision making team comprised the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Chief Operations Officer (COO). The Chief Information Officer (CIO) reported to the CFO and was not directly involved in the decision making. Three other senior managers in sales, distribution and supply chain areas provided major input to the CIO. The supply chain manager in particular was new and produced a very convincing business case to upgrade the existing ERP based on a successful experience in a previous company. The executive committee placed a high level of trust and did not spend sufficient time to investigate the available options due to time pressure. As a result, the outcome was not considered optimal since they ended up spending a significant amount of financial resources for little improvements to the existing system and capability.

Preliminary Testing

The testing of the model so far indicates that key influence factors presented by the SITDMM are evident. An initial analysis was conducted for PHARMA. Overall, the results indicate that the Top Management Team played the most significant role in influencing the extent to which the SITDMM process is analytical, intuitive, and political which has an implication on the decision outcome. Illustrative quotes from PHARMA provide examples of what was considered to be evidence for each of the propositions.

P1: Decision context influences the decision process.

There is clear evidence that both the external environment such as markets and industry dynamics and organizational characteristics influenced the decision making process. For example, when explaining about the reason for deciding to upgrade the ERP system, the CFO asserts: "…some of that's because of factors outside of our control … the industry dynamics are changing…." The success of other companies in upgrading a similar ERP system appeared to affect PHARMA's decision which shows the influence the external environment. The CFO indicates the influence of organizational characteristic by: "…someone who's built up this power base around a core system" and how "someone's really pushed something into the business". This indicates a more political rather than analytical decision making process.

P2: Decision context influences the decision.

There was no evidence for external factors in influencing the final decision at PHARMA. For organizational characteristics, the CFO described "They [IT] were more sort of infrastructure focused and sort of run maintain focused." This seems to have impacted the choice to upgrade the existing ERP.

P3: The Top Management Team influences the decision process. An example of the influence of team-level characteristics is where key decision makers at PHARMA placed a lot of trust in the information they were provided with: "The board would pretty much be guided by what management tell them." The influence of decisionmaker characteristics is also evident. Who is part of the decision team and how per-suasive they are can also impact strategic IT decision making processes: "I think some of that is very much driven by the leader of the organization".

P4: Decision team influences the decision. Indicative statements of how influential the team-level characteristics impact the final decision were identified. For example, "…we did a lot of change so we brought in a whole new management team… and they'll often bring their biases from those organizations with them." The supply chain manager apparently wanted the ERP system to be updated and upgraded: "…he obviously came to the view pretty quickly actually that he wanted to both update and upgrade." Furthermore, the final decision made at PHARMA was clearly influenced by the decision-maker characteristics of high levels of trust: "…I think in hindsight myself and the CEO probably were guided by what the CIO was telling us."

P5: Decision-specific factors influence the decision process.

There is evidence of the influence of decision-matter characteristics since the supply chain manager deemed it was necessary to quickly take an action -based on minimal information-to address the issues caused by the previous ERP system: "He put together a business case, he worked with the vendor of the SCM which is never a good thing quite frankly." However due to the time pressure, thorough and objective assessments of the available options were not conducted. Moreover, the case confirms the influence of informational factors as the CFO explained the importance of gathering information from various sources during the decision making process. However, PHARMA did not address this factor very well: "there wasn't enough work done."

P6: Decision-specific factors influence the decision. The decision to upgrade the existing ERP system was significantly influenced by the urgency to improve the overall performance and competitiveness of PHARMA, which typifies the influence of decision-matter characteristics. As a result, the senior executives simply followed minimal information provided for the recommendation to upgrade: "I kind of went off what they told me and I probably didn't dig below the surface." P7: The decision process influences the decision. The CFO believed that the decision making process was more intuitive which had led to a sub-optimal decision: "In hindsight, I suppose it was more intuitive than political".

Discussion and Conclusions

The SITDMM provides a fundamental set of key factors that can influence strategic IT decision making. Through this research-in-progress paper, some initial insights have been established about how inter-related key factors impacted a strategic IT decision making process and its subsequent outcome. The overall scores of the strength-of-evidence provided for the seven propositions suggest that all factors in the SITDMM warrant careful consideration in relation to any strategic IT decision making. This preliminary testing of the SITDMM demonstrates that strategic IT decisions are influenced by an intricate combination of contextual, team, and decision-specific factors. Of most significance is the top management team, whose views, previous experiences and biases influenced both their analysis of information and contextual circumstances leading to final decisions. Since Proposition 3 (The Top Management Team influences the decision process) ranked highest in terms of strength of evidence it is proposed that comprehensively managing factors related to the top management team may provide additional accountability and allow for a more reliable decision making platform. Reducing political clout, managing team biases from previous successes or failures of implementing IT in another context, and seeking more evidence based information may lead to improving such decisions.

Our study also highlights the fact that strategic IT decision making process often involves a considerable level of intuition, regardless of the effort to make the process analytical. Senior executives usually believe that they have been analytical in making specific strategic IT decisions, but they may later realize that intuition and politics have affected their decisions, as revealed by the CFO at PHARMA. Therefore, it is suggested that a thorough feasibility study is critical to avoid making rushed decisions based on insufficient information. As it is challenging to obtain accurate cost and benefit estimations of any large IT investments, the CFO recognized the importance of stage gating the process to help manage the overall strategic decision process and the related cost-estimation. This suggestion is in line with [START_REF] Merrow | Industrial megaprojects: Concepts, strategies, and practices for success[END_REF] and [START_REF] Lawrence | Stage Gated Approval Processes-A Practical Way to Develop and Filter Capital Investment Ideas[END_REF].

Additional insights that arose from the analysis indicate that senior executives do not always sufficiently question the validity of the evidence provided. The level of trust and relationship senior executives have cultivated with their teams appeared to be important in decision making. It is hence critical for senior executives to stay objective when dealing with strategic IT decision making. Ensuring adequate time to explore possible options and gather unbiased information from various sources would be useful to enhance strategic IT decision making as identified by this case.

For PHARMA we conclude that there are 3 key issues that affected the suboptimal decision outcome. Firstly, there was time pressure to make a decision to address the ERP system limitations and declining organizational performance. The final decision to upgrade the ERP was not based on adequate assessment of possible options. Secondly, restrictive organizational structure and culture in which the CIO was not involved in the executive committee might have affected the decision making process. Limitations associated with the CIO's level of strategic decision-making authority as demonstrated in the PHARMA case have been identified in [START_REF] Preston | Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of CIO Strategic Decision-Making Authority: An Empirical Study[END_REF]. Without the direct influence of the CIO on the executive committee, it is challenging to properly align IT's contribution to organizational performance. Thirdly, ineffective cost-benefit analysis hampered the senior executives to make an optimal decision. The cost-benefit estimates provided by the managers and vendor were not reliable leading to cost overruns and a poor outcome.

Through this preliminary assessment of the SITDM model, we offer a modest contribution in enhancing the current understanding of strategic IT decision making that potentially may help improve the success of strategic IT projects. A better understanding of influence factors that can impact the decision making process can equip organizations to devise appropriate mitigation strategies to improve their overall strategic IT decision making process. Even though analytical dimensions are by far the most explored in IS research, the intuitive and political dimensions are just as important as is evidenced in this paper. Results of this initial analysis have previously been presented as a case study designed to provide teaching insights for graduate students about Strategic IT decision making [START_REF] Sherah | Is there a prescription for strategic IT decisions[END_REF]. With increasing interest in strategic decision making in organizations [START_REF] Jassism | An investigation of the strategic decision making process in SME's[END_REF] the next step of our study will be to analyze interviews from more case organizations. This should further refine our observations and testing of the influence of the key factors identified by the SITDMM. Ultimately a framework for Strategic IT decision making will be developed to assist organizations improve their decision making capabilities and outcomes.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. Influence factors of the SITDMM [10].

Table 1 .

 1 Table 1 summarizes the strength-of-evidence obtained for each proposition at PHARMA. The Strength-of-Evidence (SoE) for each proposition: 1=1 statement and 2=2 or more statements.

	Proposition	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	P7
	Coder 1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1
	Coder 2	2	1	2	2	2	1	1
	Coder 3	2	1	2	1	1	2	1
	AVG	1.6	1	2	1.6	1.6	1.6	1

Acknowledgement This case study is derived from an interview data set that was conducted for a research project funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant DP130103535.