ANT is a critical social theory which Callon, 1986; Latour, 1986; Law, 1986; and Johannesson (2005) developed within science and technology studies and sociological studies. ANT is a research methodology which provides further exploration in developing project management knowledge in order to support the project’s aims (Pollack, Costello and Sankaran, 2013). ANT has been applied to management and organisation studies especially in terms of innovation (Young, Borland, and Coghill, 2010). Moreover, it is employed in analysis information systems (Mutch, 2002). ANT is accepted widely in understanding the process of implementing technology projects. Pollack, Costello and Sankaran (2013) report that ANT focuses primarily on investigating and building interactions within the actors’ network. This study analyses many areas that are related to ANT.
Firstly, ANT states that the world is made up of the interactions between human and non- human actors which produce a network. Consequently, a network is described as a black box since it includes complex relationships. In studying the networks of connections made by mediators taking action, Pollack, Costello and Sankaran (2013) report that ANT was also employed to investigate how different actors worked together to achieve the network’s final goal. In contrast, the social networks’ theory focused on people networks or human actors. Actors seek to achieve both individual and the network’s goals (House, 2001). In other words, the actor network contains a complex bundle of heterogeneous resources which, in order for a firm to be successful, includes the interactions between material and non-material
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actors (Rafea, 1999; Steen, 2010). For instance, within a bank, the relationships involve many actors such as employees, their ideas and technology. These actors work together to form a network.
Secondly, ANT considers that a network should possess a determined goal based on the alignment of interests. It stresses shared action for fulfilling the project’s aims. Therefore, although a network includes various actors, they have aligned interests (Bakhshaie, 2008). A network may be broken or destroyed if it has no common goal which gathers its actors to perform their activities as a team. Consequently, the actors have to move to another network since their interests are consistent with a new network (Monterio, 2000). A successful network consists of different actors with different ways of thinking, different knowledge and skills. They prefer to transfer their own interests into common interests within the network (Latour, 2005).
Thirdly, ANT confirms that the process of building or evaluating an actor-network should cover a series of four moments of translation, namely, problematisation, interessement, enrollment and mobilisation (e.g. Rhodes, 2009; Steen, 2010; Young et al., 2010). The next part presents these stages and other concepts in more detail.
4.2.3.2 The concepts of ANT
Table 5-1 presents the following concepts related to ANT. Table 4-1: ANT Concepts
Concept Description Reference
Actor or acts An actor is defined as human and non-human entities which are parts of a network, for example, humans, technical
Ghazinoory and Hajishirzi, 2012.
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artefacts, texts and graphical representations. Actors try to convince others to create aligned interests in order to build a network.
Actor network An actor network is a set of heterogeneous factors including people; standards; and groups which have been brought together or it is a heterogeneous network of aligned interests in order to achieve a determined aim.
Callon, 1991
Translation Translation is a main point in understanding how a project builds a coherent actor network. It is the process of persuading a diverse set of actors to adopt the focal actor’s interests. In other words, it is the process of creating links between actors through aligning the different actors’ interests with those of the focal actor. This process consists of four “moments of translation” known as problematisation, interessement, enrollment and mobilisation
Rhodes, 2009; Barry, 2013
Focal actor The focal actor is the main actor that has resources and authorities to convince other actors to accept the network interests.
Potts, (2009)
problematisation Problematisation is the first stage of translation which describes the nature of the problem whereby the focal actor defines a problem which other actors consider as their own problem. Moreover, a focal actor states the other actors’ characteristics and interests which are similar to the network. Furthermore, this stage is very important since it supports
Callon (1986); Rodger, (2007); Rhodes, (2009).
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the focal actor not only in discovering which are the significant actors but also, those which are not. Moreover, the problem identification phase should determine an Obligatory Passage Point (OPP).
Obligatory
Passage Point (OPP)
The focal actor defines the requirements which are necessary to create a network whereby the actors are joined to the network if they qualify to satisfy these needs. An OPP may be either an aim; a question; or a programme which meets the different actors’ interests. It is a point along the path leading to the various actors’ goals as defined in the problematisation phase.
Rodger, 2007; Shin, 2010
Interessement The second phase of translation relates to the focal actor persuading actors initially to adopt the suggested path. Consequently, it is considered to be a negotiated stage. While the problematisation phase defined the actors’ allowable interests and identities, interessement strengthens the relationships between actors through stabilizing these actors’ identities and interests.
Rafea, (1999); Rhodes, (2009); Ghazinoory and Hajishirzi, 2012.
Enrollment Enrolment means that the actors accept the OPP or they accept the network’s roles and interests which are decided on the above stages. Both enrollment and interessement are related since if the actors did not accept the roles and identities defined in the first stage (problematisation) and negotiated in the interessement stage, enrolment could not be
Duim and Marwijk,
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completed. Hence, the successful previous stages are essential if the enrolment moment is to be accomplished. Mobilisation Mobilisation is the process in that certain actors are
considered to be spokespeople or representatives to attract other relevant actors to support a network’s aim. Therefore, maintaining the network is completed through persuading the actors that have interests which are consistent with the focal actor’s interests. Also, they encourage others to participate in the actor network.
Rhodes, (2009).
4.3 How to Apply ANT (Problematisation (The Formation of Innovation-Network)