The following article suggests a critical realistic framework, which aims at modeling sociotechnical change
linked to end-users' IT appropriation: the "archetypal approach". The basic situations it includes (the
"sociotechnical archetypes"), and the possible appropriative trajectories that combine them, together with three
propositions linked to the model, are developed. They are illustrated by means of a case study describing the
implementation of an e-learning system within a French university. The paper then presents an instrumentation
of the theoretical framework, based on a quantitative longitudinal approach: the Process Patterns Recognition
(PPR) method. This one draws mainly on Doty, Glick and Huber (1993, 1994) who propose to evaluate the
distance between organizational archetypes and empirical configurations by means of Euclidean distance
calculus. The adaptation consists in evaluating the distance between appropriative trajectories (embodied by
series of theoretically specified vectors) and empirical processes linked to the implementation of computerized
tools in organizations. The PPR method is then applied to the same organizational setting as the one related to
the case study. It validates the relevance of this type of a research strategy, which makes it possible to model
sociotechnical dynamics related to end-users' IT appropriations.
