Partial abandonment as an exit strategy for troubled IT projects : Lessons from a small‐and‐medium enterprise

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a stakeholder analysis to find out what factors contribute to partial abandonment and also to examine stakeholders' roles and role conflicts in a partial abandonment implementation process. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a partially abandoned electronic procurement system project is discussed and analyzed within a small‐and‐medium enterprise in Australia. Semi‐structured interviews, on‐site observation and documentation were the data collection method adopted in this study. Findings – Based on the findings derived from the study, this paper proposes a stakeholder assessment framework of partial abandonment to examine stakeholders' roles and role conflicts in influencing organizational decisions to partially abandon troubled IT projects. Originality/value – The framework will help both researchers and practitioners to shed light on stakeholder‐related issues of partial abandonment, as it offers the flexibility to accommodate understanding of various causes that may have contributed to the partial abandonment decision.