The Role of Competencies and Interests in Developing Complex IT Artefacts: The Case of a Metering System

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the relationship between artefacts and organizational structuration by describing the dynamics surrounding the collaborative development of Information Technology artefacts. The research addresses a clear gap in the literature, as cooperation in artefact design has rarely been analyzed. To explore this issue, we analyze as a case study the various attempts, undertaken by a consortium of various economic actors, at developing an electronic metering system. The main results emerging from the field study are 1) the relevance of each actor’s interests as the main rationale for explaining the technical features of the artefact; 2) the role of negotiation and consensus in determining the final shape of the artefact in term of its features; 3) the bundling/unbundling of features within the physical object as the cooperative effort rises/falls.