Introducing public sector eIDs : The power of actors’ translations and institutional barriers

The electronic identification (eID) is a digital representation of our analogue identity used for authentication in order to gain access to personalized restricted online content. Despite its limited and clearly defined scope, the eID has a unique role to play in information society as an enabler of public digital services for citizens as well as businesses and a prerequisite for the development of electronic government (eGovernment). This study shows a tendency of treating public sector eIDs like Information and Communications Technology (ICT) artefacts in general. Hence, a narrow focus on technology is often applied thus placing non-technical aspects in the background. Consequently, social and organizational implications are often unproblematized which in turn becomes problematic in the case of the public sector eID. This study puts forth a need for a broader focus in this area and contributes by focusing on the challenges related to the resistance to introductions of eIDs among affected actors in the public sector. This study assumes that affected actors’ perceptions (translations) of the eID have a potential impact on its introduction on organizational as well as operational level. Research questions focus on the influence of resistance on the introduction and the relationship between resistance and actors’ translations of the eID. The aim is to further develop existing concepts and bring new insights to research as well as practice. The analytical perspectives of sociology and institutionalism aim at developing a tentative analytical framework for investigations of this relationship. Introductions, therefore, become institutional pressures facing resistance as related to affected actors’ translations. The empirical basis consists of two interpretive case studies of eID introductions –a national eID to cover the entire public sector and a professional eID in health care. The result shows that resistance in the form of institutional barriers develops from actors’ negative translations of the eID and main coordinating actors’ tend to fail in their attempts to negotiate these barriers. This confirms a closer relationship between institutional pressures and barriers and a view of pressures, barriers and eIDs as translated institutions transferred across organizational settings is put forth. To facilitate future research and practice related to public sector eID introductions, three propositions are put forth. (1) The importance of acknowledging pressures to introduce eIDs as closely related to barriers. (2) The institutions involved in this process as all translated by the government, coordinating actors as well as affected actors. (3) The importance of a developed understanding of these institutions, translations and relationships in order to facilitate cooperative efforts shaping future public sector eIDs.