Navigating Rumsfeld's quadrants: A performative perspective on IT risk management

In this paper, we contribute to risk management theory by investigating the internal dynamics of IT risks in contemporary organizations. We explore how digitization of previously physical organizational contexts trigger risk by conceptualizing risk management from a performative perspective and the assumption that risks are sociomaterial by nature. Through an exploratory case study of the risk management practices at a paper and pulp factory, we analyze the different epistemic strategies employed by the practitioners as proactive, reactive and adaptive. We discuss how and why these strategies emerge as a result of the sociomaterial configurations.