How the Normative Aspect of Stakeholder Theory Relates to Information Technology Diffusion

Donaldson and Preston (1995) propose a classification framework defining three aspects of stakeholder theory, namely descriptive, instrumental, and normative. The authors argue that the normative aspect of the theory is fundamental and is related with categorical issues of what is right or wrong that needs to be done by corporate managers. In other words there is a normative core in the stakeholder concept that can result in managers becoming sensitive to stakeholders' interests because it is morally right. Although this aspect is embedded in the stakeholder literature; the fundamental normative issues involved are often unexamined. This is also the case of stakeholder theory use in information systems research. According to Pouloudi (1999) the use of the theory in information systems is restricted to the descriptive and instrumental aspect and there is hardly evidence of a normative element.

In the case of information technology diffusion research (see King et al., 1994; Damsgaard & Lyytinen, 2001; Swan & Newell, 1995; Nambisan & Agarwal, 1998), the notion of stakeholders is implicitly embedded in the corresponding literature without the explicit reference to the term or any of the theories' aspects. The research is mainly focused on the role of public or private organizations as facilitators, in the diffusion of specific technologies such as EDI to particular industry sectors.

Here the focus is moved to information technology diffusion research by investigating stakeholder roles and normative interests at a high level of information technology strategy formulation. Specifically, the interests of policy makers at national or international levels are analyzed as part of an effort to understand the digital divide and the strategies towards its elimination.

Previous research on stakeholder participation in electronic commerce diffusion (Papazafeiropoulou, 2002) has identified a number of groups of stakeholders that play an important role in the process at national or international levels. These are:

• Change agencies: Policy makers that act as electronic commerce promoters influencing the public in using new information technologies.

• Change agents: Organizations playing an intermediary role, as they act between the change agencies and the diffusion receivers (companies or individuals) in order to influence the latter towards the adoption of an innovation. In this group roles include advisors, tutors, speakers, and organizers of awareness activities.

• Sponsors: Private or public organizations that support financially electronic commerce diffusion activities.

• Facilitators: Organizations offering technical support to the organizers of diffusion activities playing a less important assisting role.

• Diffusion receivers: Individuals or companies that are the target of diffusion activities pursued by the diffusers (all previous stakeholder groups).

In this chapter the role of the change agencies is in focus, as they are responsible for national and international policies on technology diffusion and have the means to help the elimination on the digital divide. In the innovation diffusion literature (see Brown, 1981; Rogers, 1995), the role of the change agency is predominant and is used to describe private or public entities through which an innovation is distributed or made available to the population at large. In the case of electronic commerce diffusion, the role of the change agency has been described as one played by stakeholders acting as policy makers at international or national levels (Papazafeiropoulou, 2002). They are initiators of wide awareness campaigns, seeking to promote electronic commerce on a large scale. They also play the role of the sponsor for such events in order to help the attraction of a widest possible audience. Their interests are related to the application of policies supporting actors in promoting electronic commerce diffusion, as the latter is related to economic and social development.

At the national level, the change agency is typically the national government, which is concerned about the diffusion of innovations to less advanced groups of stakeholders such as small companies and companies in rural areas. As described in an OECD report on the digital divide (OECD, 2001), "All OECD countries have support programs for small businesses, which in general are slower to adopt new technologies and which face particular information asymmetries, management and skills issues. Support for small businesses increasingly has a component aimed at increasing the rate of uptake and use of ICTs. Governments also assist some regions and rural areas, owing to particular problems associated with lagging regions" (p. 6).

At the international level, change agencies act at a higher strategy level and their influence is very important, especially in setting international standards and global commercial codes. National governments have to consider their directives seriously if they want their policies to be compliant with those set by international organizations. Such organizations are, for example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

These organizations offer directives about the application of diffusion strategies and are concerned about reducing inequalities between advanced and less advanced countries under their influence. OECD (2001), for example, supports that multilateral cooperation is very important for reducing differences in international digital divides across countries and improving, by learning from others' experience, the efficiency of measures taken by other countries. The idea is that countries in less advanced positions can gain from the cooperation with early adopters of the Internet and electronic commerce by following examples of policies, which appear to be effective.

In the next section perspectives of stakeholders acting as change agencies are examined. Official statements and reports are used to investigate their normative implications for the application of effective information technology polices.