Authors : Sazelin Arif, Safiah Sidek and Nurdinah Abu Bakar
Abstract: The rapid development of ICT has become the catalyst to many creations of online technology worldwide. Online technology has become part of everyday activities for individuals, corporate bodies, institutions and government. However, there are concerns that the use of online technology has been restrictive in certain aspects. Although, studies to understand the facilitating and restrictive factors of using online technology have been varied and extensive, studies that recognize the multiple and interdependent factors could provide a better understanding of the use of a nascent technology, such as the online technology. As such, this paper presents a review of studies that adopts Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a lens to understand the use of online technology. Based on 110 papers selected from reliable databases, these papers were analyzed and categorized according to different domains. It was found that ANT has been used in nine domains, mainly the domains of culture and society as well as business. Further, three advantages of using ANT as a lens to understand the use of online technology have been identified, namely, its ability to explain a complex mechanism, identify failure factors and present a holistic picture with variety of interrelated factors. It can be concluded that ANT is an appropriate interpretive tool to understand the fluid usage of online technology.
Sazelin Arif, Safiah Sidek and Nurdinah Abu Bakar, 2017. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as an Interpretive Tool to Understand the Use of Online Technologies: A Review. Asian Journal of Information Technology, 16: 61-68.