eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Abstract PURPOSE OF THE STUDY This paper studied which factors need to be emphasized in the beginning of an innovation project. The paper focused on an innovation project which aims to standardize the mandatory payroll reporting in the Finnish context. The aim of the paper was to identify the factors which the focal actor has to lay special emphasis on when one attempts to build stronger link between oneself and the other actors inside the actor-network. The result of this paper may act as a guide for projects with similar standardization targets. DATA The data for the paper was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The total of twelve interviews were conducted, in which fourteen participants of the innovation project were interviewed. The participants represented different stakeholder organizations of the innovation project. The participants came from four different groups; payroll data receivers, payroll data senders, ministries and software houses. After the interviews the data was analyzed with the help of a qualitative data analysis tool in order to indicate the factors which were emphasized by the interviewees. RESULTS The paper indicated that the focal actor has to lay special emphasis on six factors. The factors highlighted in this paper were 1) execution, 2) communication, 3) win-win-win vision, 4) scope definition, 5) commitment and 6) political power. The paper offers insight into the actions of the actor-network and introduces factors that need to be emphasized when the focal actant attempts to produce a viable actor-network. In addition, the paper indicated that the actor-network theory emphasized these factors as well. Thus the paper contributes to current actor-network theory-based accounting literature by identifying factors which help the actor-network to be successful and by indicating that these factors are identified by actor-network theory as well. In addition, this paper offers guidelines for project management of projects with similar standardization targets.