Boom and Bust Dynamics of Management Tool Implementation

This article aims to promote a dynamic perspective on the issues of sustainable managenemt tool innovation. In particular, we concentrate on tool implementation and subsequent rejection, a pattern which often occurs in businesses. Until now, most research on management tools has mainly relied on survey data and has failed to account for the dynamics of implementation and subsequent rejection of a management tool. Since sustainable implementation is not guaranteed by initial adoption, we try to understand rejection (or discontiuation) of tools in order to obtain insights about measure to achieve long-term acceptance. On the basis of a revelatory case study, we present the process of management tool implementation by means of a systems model. We provide a theory about the underlying dynamics of the boom and bust phenomenon.