Evolution of IT Use: A Case of Business Intelligence System Transition

Business intelligence (BI) becomes increasingly important and is an evolving topic in research and practice. The evolvement of BI, the flexibility of BI systems, and their context-dependency entail diverse and partially contradicting results on BI system use and outcomes. This study examines how and why BI systems are used differently and what the entailing outcomes are. With the theoretical lens of affordances, we account for non-deterministic BI results. We conceptualize constraints, complementary to affordances, for a more holistic picture of the appropriation process. For this, we conduct an in-depth case study to explore different user perceptions and appropriations of a successfully implemented BI system. We inform affordance theory, advancing research on the (mis-)perception of affordances and constraints by applying an extended model of the appropriation process. For practitioners, we present potential paths for BI systems development and provide a visual representation of affordances and constraints supporting intended affordance developments.