Purpose While organizations accomplish much of their work through executing organizational routines, the implementation of IT systems shapes and transforms organizations. The social constructivist perspectives â perception, interpretation, appropriation, enactment and alignment perspectives â provide a robust mechanism to study the social construction of IT implementation in IT-enabled organizational transformation (OT). Only a few studies have combined different social constructivist perspectives, while none have applied all five perspectives. This study applied the five social perspectives together to investigate the phenomenon of IT-enabled OT in a holistic and integrated manner. Design/methodology/approach Following the existing literature, we initially developed a framework to conceptualize IT-enabled OT as a cyclic process of the coevolution of organizational routines and an IT system. The framework integrates five social constructivist perspectives, suggesting that different perspectives focus on different implementation phases, and assumes an implicit sequence of applying the perspectives. We performed an interpretive case study and adopted a pluralist research approach to leverage the power of multiperspective inquiry by applying the proposed conceptual framework for a holistic investigation. Findings Extant literature on IT-enabled OT is based on a phase model of IT implementation, suggesting that the perception focuses on the adoption phase, the interpretation, appropriation and enactment perspectives focus on the use phase, and the alignment perspective focuses on the adaptation phase of a new IT system. This research challenges the distinction of five perspectives with focuses on certain phases, empirically demonstrating that all five perspectives are relevant during the entire implementation of an IT system, although with different weightings and emphases, which thus questions the understanding of IT implementation as a phased process. Originality/value The study proposes a theoretical framework to reconceptualize IT-enabled OT as a cyclic coevolution process of organizational routines and a new IT system, with the application of five social constructivist perspectives. The framework provides a holistic view of the coevolution process in a systematic manner by explaining how actors perceive, interpret, appropriate, enact and align a new IT system in their work routines, as well as how they align the new system and these routines with the social order and structures of the organization. Thus, this research challenges the existing phase model of the social construction of IT implementation and puts forward an alternative understanding of IT-enabled OT.