An Empirical Assessment of the Organization of Transnational Information Systems.

Author List: King, William R.; Sethi, Vikram;
Journal of Management Information Systems, 1999, Volume 15, Issue 4, Page 7/28/2017.
The objective of this study is to aid our understanding of the organization of information systems in organizations whose activities cross national boundaries. The increasing globalization of business has led firms to seek new, and more appropriate, organizational structures, processes, and cultures. This has required the establishment of appropriate information technology platforms to coordinate business processes and to provide coalition mechanisms. This study is based on five important dimensions of transnational strategy--the configuration of value chain activities, the coordination of value chain activities, centralization, strategic alliances, and market integration--that define a comprehensive taxonomy of transnational strategy. A basic proposition is that a firm's transnational strategy will be reflected in the design of its information systems. To address this proposition, a two-stage questionnaire study was conducted. Respondents included 150 multinational corporations from 20 countries and 25 industries. The five dimensions of transnational strategy were operationalized, and the analysis established the validity of a taxonomy that is better suited to the study of systems-related issues in MNCs. This taxonomy was used to test hypotheses related to the organization of transnational systems. These hypotheses were stated in terms of IS organizational, strategic, architectural, and personnel dimensions. The results of the study support the proposition that the organizational characteristics of centralization, dispersal, and coordination are differentially reflected in the IT configurations of various kinds of MNCs. In a centrally coordinated business structure, IT is also globally centralized. In addition, local autonomy was shown to affect the deployment of IT in global firms.
Keywords: global information systems; multinational corporations; strategic information systems.
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#277 0.208 structure organization structures organizational centralized decentralized study organizations forms decentralization processing communication sharing cbis activities appropriate provide identify organizing communications
#276 0.114 satisfaction information systems study characteristics data results using user related field survey empirical quality hypotheses important success various indicate tested
#143 0.108 value business benefits technology based economic creation related intangible cocreation assessing financial improved key economics assess question created create understanding
#256 0.094 coordination mechanisms work contingencies boundaries temporal coordinating vertical associated activities different coordinate suggests dispersed coordinated horizontal relative demand spatial hours
#123 0.078 information strategy strategic technology management systems competitive executives role cio chief senior executive cios sis support organization officer position ceos
#77 0.071 information systems paper use design case important used context provide presented authors concepts order number various underlying implementation framework nature
#150 0.069 issues management systems information key managers executives senior corporate important importance survey critical corporations multinational managing interviews study results concerns
#164 0.067 countries global developing technology international country developed national economic policy domestic study foreign globalization world government nations innovative technological especially
#159 0.059 systems information objectives organization organizational development variety needs need efforts technical organizations developing suggest given effective designing lack help recent