Best Paper Award at the EGPA conference in 2012 for the paper, “The Reinforcement Hypothesis Revisited” (co-authored with Kim N. Andersen).
"This year’s Best Paper Award goes to... Jeppe Agger Nielsen and Kim Normann Andersen for their paper which is titled ‘The Reinforcement Hypothesis Revisited: Mobile Technology and Management Control in Home Care’.
The research of informatization in the public sector is a relatively ‘young’ when compared to other scientific disciplines. One of the first major ‘theories’ that was developed with regard to the use of ICT within public administration was the Reinforcement hypothesis by Dantzinger, Dutton, Kling and Kraemer within the Irvine School. It is 30 years since their book was published. Since then all kinds of new technologies, with new characteristics and new promises, have emerged. The question whether this ‘classic’ hypothesis has still explanatory power is therefore very relevant. But it is not obvious to focus on such a research question. Because often the new technologies are used as a focal point in our research today and not so much the development or testing of theory. By looking at the reinforcement hypothesis in relation to mobile technology, Agger Nielsen and Kim Normann Andersen combined classic theory with new technology. And they have done it in a very interesting way. They have used multiple sources of data and took a longitudinal perspective to allow for consideration of how the reinforcement process unfolded. This leads to a very rich case description and a convincing analysis."