Firms are increasingly using collaborative systems to enhance supply-chain visibility. A key emphasis of these interorganizational systems (IOS) is to improve the coordination between buyers and ...suppliers through electronic integration. While such IOS integration is purportedly good, because it tightens linkages in the supply chain, it is not clear whether it is the best configuration under all conditions. A review of literature on adoption and use of electronic data interchange (EDI) systems (a type of IOS) shows that this issue has been examined from multiple theoretic perspectives. Researchers have examined how contingencies related to technology, organization, and environment shape EDI use. Limited attention has been directed toward understanding how conditions under which transactions are conducted impact the use of IOS. We argue that transactional characteristics are important antecedents to IOS integration and propose that demand uncertainty, complexity, market fragmentation, and market volatility capture key characteristics. These factors coupled with an open information-sharing environment are hypothesized to influence IOS integration. Data collected from the electronics industry is used to examine the research model. Results show that firms tend to deploy integrated IOS when complexity of the component is high, market fragmentation is low, and an open information-sharing environment exists. Thus, from a managerial perspective, IOS integration is the appropriate configuration under conditions of high product complexity and open information-sharing environment, but it precludes the firm from participating in the open market and gaining brokerage benefits.
This study develops and tests a three-stage model that examines the role of the quality of shared information in interorganizational systems (IOS) use. The model provides a more inclusive method of ...measuring quality of shared information in IOS use through a re-examination of the impact of top management support and IT infrastructure capability, and by assessing the mediating effect of operational supply chain performance on the relationship between quality of shared information and overall firm performance. Our results suggest that the impact of the quality of shared information in IOS use on overall firm performance starts with top management support and IT infrastructure capability, and that these success factors positively impact the quality of shared information in IOS use. Moreover, our results indicate that the quality of shared information positively impacts operational supply chain performance, which, in turn, leads to improvements in overall firm performance. Overall, our results highlight the importance of high quality of shared information in IOS use.
Interoperability is a crucial organizational capability that enables firms to manage information systems (IS) from heterogeneous trading partners in a value network. While interoperability has been ...discussed conceptually in the IS literature, few comprehensive empirical studies have been conducted to conceptualize this construct and examine it in depth. For instance, it is unclear how interoperability is formed and whether it can improve organizational performance. To fill the gap, we argue that interorganizational systems (IOS) standards are a key information technology infrastructure facilitating formation of interoperability. As an organizational ability to work with external trading partners, interoperability's development depends not only on capability building within firm boundaries but also on community readiness across firm boundaries. Using data collected from 194 organizations in the geospatial industry, we empirically confirm that interoperability is formed via these two different paths. Furthermore, our results show that interoperability acts as a mediator by enabling firms to achieve performance gains from IOS standards adoption. Our study sheds new light on formation mechanisms as well as the business value of interoperability.
Purpose
Interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) are IT-enabled process specifications that standardize, streamline, and improve business processes related to interorganizational ...relationships. There has been much interest in IBPS as organizations from different industries implement these process standards that lead to successful organizational outcomes by integrating and standardizing intra- and inter-organizational business processes. These process standards enable data analytics capabilities by facilitating new sources of interorganizational process data. The purpose of this paper is to unearth employees’ reactions to a new type of supply chain process innovations that involved an implementation of new IBPS, a supply chain management (SCM) system, and associated analytics capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors gathered and analyzed qualitative data for a year from the employees of a healthcare supplier, a high-tech manufacturing organization, during the implementation of a SCM system and RosettaNet-based IBPS.
Findings
In what the authors termed the initiation stage, there was quite a bit of confusion and unrest among employees regarding the relevance of the new process standards and associated analytics capabilities. With the passage of time, in the institutionalization stage, although the situation improved slightly, employees found workarounds that allowed them to appropriate just part of specific processes and the analytics capabilities. Finally, once routinized, employees felt comfortable in the situation but still did not appropriate the new supply chain processes faithfully. Overall, employees’ reactions toward the SCM system and associated analytics capabilities were different from their reactions toward the new business processes.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature by offering novel insights on how employees react to and appropriate process innovations that change their work processes.
Much attention has been given to the proposition that the exchange of health information as an act, and health information exchange (HIE), as an entity, are critical components of a framework for ...health care change, yet little has been studied to understand the value proposition of implementing HIE with a statewide HIE. Such an organization facilitates the exchange of health information across disparate systems, thus following patients as they move across different care settings and encounters, whether or not they share an organizational affiliation. A sociotechnical systems approach and an interorganizational systems framework were used to examine implementation of a health system electronic medical record (EMR) system onto a statewide HIE, under a cooperative agreement with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and its collaborating organizations.
The objective of the study was to focus on the implementation of a health system onto a statewide HIE; provide insight into the technical, organizational, and governance aspects of a large private health system and the Virginia statewide HIE (organizations with the shared goal of exchanging health information); and to understand the organizational motivations and value propositions apparent during HIE implementation.
We used a formative evaluation methodology to investigate the first implementation of a health system onto the statewide HIE. Qualitative methods (direct observation, 36 hours), informal information gathering, semistructured interviews (N=12), and document analysis were used to gather data between August 12, 2012 and June 24, 2013. Derived from sociotechnical concepts, a Blended Value Collaboration Enactment Framework guided the data gathering and analysis to understand organizational stakeholders' perspectives across technical, organizational, and governance dimensions.
Several challenges, successes, and lessons learned during the implementation of a health system to the statewide HIE were found. The most significant perceived success was accomplishing the implementation, although many interviewees also underscored the value of a project champion with decision-making power. In terms of lessons learned, social reasons were found to be very significant motivators for early implementation, frequently outweighing economic motivations. It was clear that understanding the guides early in the project would have mitigated some of the challenges that emerged, and early communication with the electronic health record vendor so that they have a solid understanding of the undertaking was critical. An HIE implementations evaluation framework was found to be useful for assessing challenges, motivations, value propositions for participating, and success factors to consider for future implementations.
This case study illuminates five critical success factors for implementation of a health system onto a statewide HIE. This study also reveals that organizations have varied motivations and value proposition perceptions for engaging in the exchange of health information, few of which, at the early stages, are economically driven.
•Explore how to use VIS standards to enable environmental collaboration and control.•Examine how to use IS to improve environmental sustainability in supply chain.•Highlight the importance of ...standards consortia in green supply chain management.
This paper examines how the use of industry standards enable knowledge sharing, process integration, environmental collaboration, and control among supply chain partners, which eventually contribute to the environmental performance of the firms. Survey data were collected from 205 firms in China that implemented RosettaNet standards. Structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses related to our research model. The results show that the use of industry standards enhances environmental collaboration and control between supply chain partners, mainly by improving interorganizational knowledge sharing and process integration. In turn, engaging in environmental collaboration and control with supply chain partners improves environmental performances of firms. Further, our empirical analysis indicates that participation in standards consortia positively moderates the effects of industry standards use on knowledge sharing and process integration.
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The following points are ascertained from this study: ▶ Some interfirm distribution networks (IDNs) perform better than others. ▶ Successful network leaders have a capability for ...developing and managing IDNs. ▶ Extranet capability is the ability to create, manage, and evolve successful IDNs. ▶ Extranet capability increases relational resources thereby adding partner value. ▶ Extranet capability is an essential capability for network leaders and IDN success.
Firms are turning toward e-business technologies to increase efficiency and effectiveness and, thereby, acquire competitive advantage. We focus on interfirm distribution networks (IDNs) connected by extranets. Our thesis is that IDNs behave
like alliances. As such, the network leader in the IDN may have an organizational capability related to developing and managing IDNs. This
extranet capability is posited to positively influence three relationship capital resources (trust, information exchange, and communication quality), which, in turn, influence positively five network performance outputs (responsiveness, financial performance, efficiency, effectiveness, and innovativeness). Based on data from 175 new car sales managers, empirical tests of the hypotheses provide support for the posited explanation of IDN performance.
. To survive and thrive in today's competitive marketplace, organizations are increasingly migrating to new organizational structures in which partnerships and interorganizational systems (IOSs) are ...becoming more important. The success of these partnerships depends on both trust and control – complex constructs that act on and shape each other over time. Many organizations assume that high levels of trust are necessary for net‐enabled electronic partnerships. We examine this assumption from two perspectives: the initial decision to enter into a partnership or alliance, and its ongoing operation. Our findings suggest that researchers have treated trust simplistically, failing to distinguish the need for trust (which is inversely related to the organization's ability to control its partners) and the level of trust (which is an actual quantity that may change during the lifetime of the partnership). In many organizations, there is a gap between these two trust dimensions, which management attempts to close by changing the level of control. In this process, the IOS is key. To understand the relationship of IOS use to trust and control, we applied structured content analysis and analytic induction to 16 published case studies and used the results to create a framework for relating trust and control. At the heart of the framework is the recognition that trust and control are not simple substitutes for each other. Rather, they form a dialectic, where it makes sense to consider each construct only in relationship to the other. Using the framework, we identify areas for follow‐up research and suggestions for practitioners.
Managing electronic trading partner relationships is a key to successful development of an interorganizational systems (IOS) network. Firms often exercise their power and offer reciprocal investments ...to their trading partners in developing an IOS network. However, limited effort has been made to empirically validate their effects on increasing IOS usage between trading partners. This paper gauges the effects of these two relational factors--power and reciprocal investments--within the context of an electronic data interchange (EDI) network development. Moreover, the role of channel climate in increasing EDI usage is explicated with a particular focus on its determinants and impacts. With insights obtained from social exchange and transaction cost theories, a research model is developed and tested with data collected from 233 suppliers with electronic linkages via EDI with a nationally recognized retailer of home improvement supplies and materials in the United States. The customer's reciprocal investments in the form of EDI-related support are proven to be effective in increasing EDI volume and diversity. However, power exercised is found to be not effective. Suppliers' cooperation with the customer, which is influenced by perceived uncertainty, trust, and transaction-specific investments, is found to have strong effects on EDI volume and diversity. Finally, the reciprocal investments are found to be an even more effective strategy when suppliers desire to keep a more cooperative relationship with the customer.
We model and estimate the effects to downstream productivity from information technology (IT) investments made upstream. Specifically, we examine how an industry's productivity is affected by the IT ...capital stock of its suppliers. These supplier-driven IT spillovers occur because, due to competition in the supplying industry, quality benefits from suppliers' IT investments can pass downstream. If the output deflators of supplying industries (consequently the intermediate input deflator of the using industries) do not capture the quality improvement from IT, then the output productivity of the supplying industries is mismeasured or misassigned. We develop and empirically test a model capturing these supplier-driven effects using data on 85 manufacturing industries at the three-digit SIC code level. We find that for a 10.5% increase in suppliers' IT capital, the suppliers' output increases by 0.63%-0.70%, which is more than covering the cost of the increase in suppliers' IT capital. In addition, this increase in suppliers' IT capital increases the average downstream industry's output by $66-$72 million, thereby confirming substantial supplier-driven IT spillovers downstream. We also infer the magnitude of the measurement error of the price deflator of the intermediate input resulting from the failure to account for IT-related quality improvement, finding that the measured price deflator overestimates the true deflator by approximately 30% at the mean level of IT capital.
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