The article focuses on challenges and opportunities for digital business strategies (DBS). It comments on strategic information science research into supply and distribution chains and the use of interorganizational systems in ensuring competitive advantage, and uses original equipment manufacturers in high-tech and automotive industries as an example. It suggests the business community is an underexploited reference in conducting research on DBS and examines the use of shared digital platforms.
Business-to-business interactions are increasingly conducted through interorganizational coordination hubs, in which standardized information technology-based platforms provide data and business process interoperability for interactions among the organizations in particular industrial communities. Because the governance of interorganizational arrangements is believed to affect their efficiency and effectiveness, this paper explores how and why interorganizational coordination hubs are governed. Analysis of relevant prior theory and case examples shows that coordination hub governance is designed to balance the sometimes conflicting needs for capital to invest in new technology, for participation of industry members, and for the protection of data resources. Findings suggest that the governance of interorganizational coordination hubs is not the starkly categorical choice between collective (member-owned) and investor-owned forms as suggested by prior theory. Instead, many hybrid arrangements are observed in the five examined cases. Future theoretical development and empirical research are needed to understand the increasingly important phenomenon of coordination hub governance.
Despite evidence that a lack of interoperable information systems results in enormous costs, development, implementation, and effective use of interorganizational systems (IOS) remain an elusive goal for many companies. Lack of interoperability across systems is especially problematic for manufacturers dependent on global supply chains. We develop propositions about the characteristics of IOS that affect information transparency in supply chains. Specifically, we propose that data and process standards are necessary, but not sufficient, to solve such information transparency problems. Instead, standards need to be complemented by hub-type information technology architectures that are shared by organizations participating in an industrial field, not just by the participants in one manufacturer's supply chain. These arguments are supported by an automotive industry case study involving data and process standardization and a shared, cloud-based architecture. We conclude with additional aspects of the case that may be relevant to addressing information transparency problems in global supply chains.
One of the most welcome recent developments in Information Systems scholarship has been the growing interest in individuals' continuing use of information technology well after initial adoption, known in the literature as IT usage, IT continuance, and post-adoptive IT usage. In this essay, we explore the theoretical underpinnings of IS research on continuing IT use. Although the IS literature on continuing IT use emphasizes the role of habitual behavior that does not require conscious behavioral intention, it does so in a way that largely remains faithful to the theoretical tradition of planned behavior and reasoned action. However, a close reading of reference literatures on automatic behavior (behavior that is not consciously controlled) and the influences of emotion on behavior suggests that planned behavior and reasoned action may not provide the best theoretical foundation for the study of continuing IT use. As a result, we call for empirical research that directly compares and contrasts the consensus theory of continuing IT use with rival theories that place much greater emphasis on unplanned and unreasoned action
Vertical information systems (VIS) standards are technical specifications designed to promote coordination among the organizations within (or across) vertical industry sectors. Examples include the bar code, electronic data interchange (EDI) standards, and RosettaNet business process standards in the electronics industry. This contribution examines VIS standardization through the lens of collective action theory, applied in the literature to information technology product standardization, but not yet to VIS standardization, which is led by heterogeneous groups of user organizations rather than by IT vendors. Through an intensive case analysis of VIS standardization in the U.S. residential mortgage industry, VIS standardization success is shown to be as problematic as IT product standardization success, but for different reasons. VIS standardization involves two linked collective action dilemmas--standards development and standards diffusion--with different characteristics, such that a solution to the first may fail to resolve the second. Whereas prior theoretical and empirical research shows that IT product standardization efforts tend to splinter into rival factions that compete through standards wars in the marketplace, successful VIS Standards consortia must encompass heterogeneous groups of user organizations and IT vendors without fragmenting. Some tactics successfully used to solve the collective action dilemma of VIS standardization (e.g., governance mechanisms and policies about intellectual property protection) are also used by IT product standardization efforts, but some are different, and successful VIS standardization requires a package of solutions tailored to fit and jointly resolve the specific dilemmas of particular VIS standards initiatives.
Electronic marketplaces (EMPs) are widely assumed to increase price transparency and hence lower product prices. Results of empirical studies have been mixed, with several studies showing that product prices have not decreased and others showing that prices have increased in some cases. One explanation is that sellers prefer not to join EMPs with high price transparency, leading highly price transparent EMPs to fail. Therefore, in order to be successful, EMPs might be expected to avoid high price transparency. But that strategy creates a catch-22 for EMPs on the buy side: Why would buyers want to join EMPs in the absence of price transparency and the benefit of lower prices? We argue that successful EMPs must provide compensatory benefits for sellers in the case of high price transparency and for buyers in the case of low price transparency. To understand how EMPs could succeed, regardless of price transparency, we examined the relationships among EMP strategy, price transparency, and performance by analyzing all 19 EMPs that compete by selling a broad range of standard electronics components. We found that all EMPs pursuing a low cost strategy had high price transparency and performed poorly. All EMPs that performed well pursued strategies of differentiation, but, interestingly, not all successful EMPs avoided price transparency: Some EMPs succeeded despite enabling high price transparency. We therefore examined two differentiated EMPs in greater depth--one with high price transparency, the other with low price transparency--to show how they achieved strategic alignment of activities and resources and provided compensatory benefits for their customers.
Vertical IS standards prescribe data structures and definitions, document formats, and business processes for particular industries, in contrast to generic information technology (IT) standards, which concern IT characteristics applicable to many industries. This paper explores the potential industry structure effects of vertical information systems (IS) standards through a case study of the U.S. home mortgage industry. We review theoretical arguments about the potential industry structure effects of standards for interorganizational coordination, and we compare the characteristics of XML-based vertical IS standards with those of electronic data interchange (EDI) to gauge the applicability of prior literature. We argue that the lower costs and wider accessibility of XML-based standards that use the Internet can result in significant changes to the structure of the mortgage industry. However, the nature of industry change will depend on the specific ways In which standards are implemented by organizations in the industry--there are many patterns of implementation with potentially different effects at the industry level of analysis. We illustrate these theoretical arguments with data from our case.
This paper addresses the design problem of providing IT support for emerging knowledge processes (EKPs). EKPs are organizational activity patterns that exhibit three characteristics in combination: an emergent process of deliberations with no best structure or sequence; requirements for knowledge that are complex (both general and situational), distributed across people, and evolving dynamically; and an actor set that is unpredictable in terms of job roles or prior knowledge. Examples of EKPs include basic research, new product development, strategic business planning, and organization design. EKPs differ qualitatively from semi-structured decision making processes; therefore, they have unique requirements that are not all thoroughly supported by familiar classes of systems, such as executive information systems, expert systems, electronic communication systems, organizational memory systems, or repositories. Further, the development literature on familiar classes of systems does not provide adequate guidance on how to build systems that support EKPs. Consequently, EKPs require a new IS design theory, as explicated by Walls et al. (1992). We created such a theory while designing and deploying a system for the EKP of organization design. The system was demonstrated through subsequent empirical analysis to be successful in supporting the process. Abstracting from the experience of building this system, we developed an IS design theory for EKP support systems. This new IS design theory is an important theoretical contribution, because it both provides guidance to developers and sets an agenda for academic research. EKP design theory makes the development process more tractable for developers by restricting the range of effective features (or rules for selecting features) and the range of effective development practices to a more manageable set. EKP design theory also sets an agenda for academic research by articulating theory-based principles that are subject to empirical, as well as practical, validation.
This paper represents a step toward a theory of knowledge reusability, with emphasis on knowledge management systems and repositories, often called organizational memory systems. Synthesis of evidence from a wide variety of sources suggests four distinct types of knowledge reuse situations according to the knowledge reuser and the purpose of knowledge reuse. The types involve shared work producers, who produce knowledge they later reuse; shared work practitioners, who reuse each other's knowledge contributions; expertise-seeking novices; and secondary knowledge miners. Each type of knowledge reuser has different requirements for knowledge repositories. Owing to how repositories are created, reusers' requirements often remain unmet. Repositories often require considerable rework to be useful for new reusers, but knowledge producers rarely have the resources and incentives to do a good job of repurposing knowledge. Solutions include careful use of incentives and human and technical intermediaries.
The Quick Response (QR) program is a hierarchical suite of information technologies (IT) and applications designed to improve the performance of retailers. Consultants advise retailers to adopt the program wholesale, implying that more and higher levels of technology are better than less technology and lower levels. Academicians, on the other hand, argue that good technology is "appropriate" technology. That is, firms should adopt only those technologies that suit the specific strategic directions pursued by the firm. Who is right? Which approach to investing in IT yields better performance results? Surprisingly, this cross-sectional survey of 80 specialty retailers found more support for the practitioners' claims than for the academicians'. Adoption of the QR program at a minimal level was associated with higher performance, although there was no performance impact due to higher levels of QR use. Firms did appear to match their IT usage to their business strategies, but there was no linkage between strategic alignment and firm performance, and there was surprisingly little variation in business or IT strategy. In short, the findings of our study suggest that both practitioners and academicians need to refine their theories and advice about what makes IT investments pay off.
Assistant Professor Marilyn Moore reread the rejection letter from a top tier MIS journal and then added it to the folder containing the letter she had received from another top MIS journal. Moore had graduated from Barker University one year before (June 1996) with a Ph.D. in business administration, majoring in management information systems and decision sciences. She had returned for her Ph.D. in 1992 at the age of 30, driven by her love of teaching and a desire to solve the problems she had seen in the eight years she had worked at a Fortune 100 consumer products firm. While at the firm, Moore had risen from a programmer to a senior systems analyst and had spent three years working with the firm's corporate training unit. With her tenure clock ticking, Moore returned to the firm she had worked for prior to entering the Ph.D. program. The firm again expressed interest in having her conduct research on IT-enabled organizational change. She sought help from senior faculty in her area to help her design the research project; her doctoral program had not addressed how to design complex, qualitative case-based research. Once again she was discouraged from pursuing this line of 'messy field research.' Although none of the faculty had conducted field-based case research, they were well aware of the problems with designing a study that adequately operationalized and controlled the variables and relationships of interest. They also pointed out that she might run into the same criticisms of the lack of generalizability of her findings since she was only planning to study one firm. In addition, they knew that field research took time and were concerned that Moore would not have a sufficient number of refereed publications to pass both school of business and university tenure hurdles.
We wrote this essay to stimulate IS specialists' efforts to become more effective - and more credible - agents of organizational change. The essay describes what we believe to be a view of the IS specialists' change-agent role that is very commonly held by IS specialists. We believe that this role, while well-intentioned and supported by structural conditions in IS work, often has negative consequences for organizations and for the credibility of IS specialists. Further, it does not fit the emerging structural conditions of IS. We describe two alternative models of what it means to be a change agent, their potential consequences, and the structural conditions that support or inhibit behavior in that role. We conclude that increased behavioral flexibility of IS specialists - the ability to switch roles in different circumstances - would improve organizational effectiveness and IS specialist credibility. Finally, we discuss the implications of our analysis for research, teaching, and practice.
This paper presents a teaching mode! that has been used successfully in the MBA core course in information systems at several universities. The model is re/erred to as the "Information Technology interaction Model" because it maintains that the consequences of information systems in organizations follow largely from the interaction of the technology with the organization and its environment The model series a number of pedagogical purposes: to integrate the various course components, to provide a formal foundation for the course content, to foster practical analytical skills, and to provide a framework for case discussions and student projects. Moreover, the model is intended to acquaint students with the dynamics of information systems in organizations and to help them recognize the benefits, dangers, and limitations of these systems. The paper includes a discussion and examples of how the model can be used for proactive and reactive analyses, and it concludes with observations on the model's effectiveness in the core course.