An Empirically Derived Model for the Adoption of Customer-based Interorganizational Systems*

Information systems (IS) researchers are now calling for the need to draw from the empirically rich field of organizational innovation. As the impact of strategic systems is increasingly being felt by organizations, the view that these systems are innovations or innovative uses of technology is becoming prevalent. Customer based interorganizational systems (CIOS) represent one of the most prominent types of such systems. This research investigates CIOS adoption. A model is constructed based on significant studies in innovation to identify factors facilitating the adoption decision of a CIOS. Data are gathered from 226 senior executives. Discriminant analysis is used to identify factors that distinguish adopters from nonadopters. Factor analysis of significant variables yielded a parsimonious model of CIOS adoption. The five factor model includes (1) a proactive technological orientation and (2) an internal push for the system as the two most significant sets of facilitators. Implications for research and practice are then discussed.     

Interorganizational System Characteristics and Supply Chain Integration: An Empirical Assessment*

Some firms have gained significant benefits by effectively deploying interorganizational systems (IOS) to tightly couple operations with their supply chain partners. In contrast, other firms with IOS deployments have struggled to achieve this level of success. So it is not clear how such systems can be configured to promote idiosyncratic interorganizational processes that integrate the supply chains and facilitate successful outcomes. To shed further light on this issue, we draw from multiple theoretical perspectives to develop a comprehensive and unique conceptualization of IOS characteristics that goes beyond the limited treatment it has received in extant literature. Furthermore, we empirically examine the IOS configuration choices made by firms with different supply chain integration (SCI) profiles. Our results support the notion that successful firms sequence the configuration of IOS characteristics toward effectively developing and supporting their supply chain process capabilities. In particular, we found that firms at the lower end of SCI configure IOS features to support supplier evaluation and automatic alerts. As organizations move to the upper end of the SCI spectrum, greater attention is paid to features associated with systems integration, planning, and forecasting. Recommendations to managers and academics stemming from our study are provided, along with avenues for future research.     

A model of the adoption of radio frequency identification technology: The case of logistics service firms

Globalization and advances in information technology represent both realities and opportunities for enterprises in the 21st century. This paper aims to broaden understanding of service innovation as a critical organizational capability through which the adoption of information technology influences firm performance. This study examines how the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology influences the operational performance of logistics service firms. We develop the RFID adoption model based on the interorganizational information systems (IOS) view of the firm that integrates the various strands of research into the framework. The study draws from the related information technology and interorganizational information systems literatures to explore organizational factors associated with the adoption of RFID. A model of the associations between information technology and interorganizational information systems use, social support, power structure, organizational readiness, procedural flexibility, and top management support is developed, and hypotheses are advanced about the relationships among these constructs. An empirical survey was conducted among 500 logistics service firms in Taiwan. A total of 131 valid observations were analyzed using the partial least squares technique. Results showed that RFID adoption has positive effects on business practices, which in turn improves operational performance. We address the value of certain interactive firm behaviors in RFID adoption and identify related constructs of RFID adoption in terms of their efficiency and value for logistics service firms. These results have implications for both education and practice.     

Examining the Impact of Interorganizational Systems on Process Efficiency and Sourcing Leverage in Buyer–Supplier Dyads

Manufacturing firms are increasingly seeking cost and other competitive advantages by tightly coupling and managing their relationship with suppliers. Among other mechanisms, interorganizational systems (IOS) that facilitate boundary‐spanning activities of a firm enable them to effectively manage different types of buyer–supplier relationships. This study integrates literature from the operations and information systems fields to create a joint perspective in understanding the linkages between the nature of the IOS, buyer–supplier relationships, and manufacturing performance at the dyadic level. External integration, breadth, and initiation are used to capture IOS functionality, and their effect on process efficiency and sourcing leverage is examined. The study also explores the differences in how manufacturing firms use IOS when operating under varying levels of competitive intensity and product standardization. In order to test the research models and related hypothesis, empirical data on buyer–supplier dyads is collected from manufacturing firms. The results show that only higher levels of external integration that go beyond simple procurement systems, as well as who initiates the IOS, allow manufacturing firms to enhance process efficiency. In contrast, IOS breadth and IOS initiation enable manufacturing firms to enhance sourcing leverage over their suppliers. In addition, firms making standardized products in highly competitive environments tend to achieve higher process efficiencies and have higher levels of external integration. The study shows how specific IOS decisions allow manufacturing firms to better manage their dependence on the supplier for resources and thereby select system functionalities that are consistent with their own operating environments and the desired supply chain design.     

Strategy Formation Across Organizational Boundaries: An Interorganizational Process Model

Strategic decision‐makers today face complex environments with meta‐problems that cut across multiple industries. Single organizations cannot address these meta‐problems. As a result, organizations collaborate with partners, among them also competitors, and commonly work together in multi‐partner initiatives (MPIs). How these organizations jointly form an interorganizational strategy (IOS), however, is not well understood. In this paper, we extend the current strategy process conceptualizations from an intraorganizational focus of a single firm to an interorganizational process of multiple strategy‐making entities working together. We selected the eMobility sector as our research context to develop such an IOS process model. We first developed 25 cases on MPIs in the German‐speaking area based on interviews and desk research, before we focused on the eMobility ecology in the southern part of Germany. We identified 291 MPIs, conducted interviews with 19 central actors, held several workshops and informal gatherings, and complemented these data with an analysis of publicly accessible documents. Using an inductive research design, we developed a process model that unfolds in three phases: initiation, negotiation and execution. We reveal specific process dynamics in MPIs to be critical in the formation and manifestation of IOS.     

The Use of Computer-mediated Communication in an Interorganizational Context

The rapid growth of global telecommunication networks, and in particular the Internet, has placed emphasis on electronic mail's potential as an interorganizational communication medium allowing people from different organizations to communicate, gather information, form teams, and pass knowledge across time and place. An important area of research is to understand those factors affecting interorganizational computer-mediated communication usage decisions. This study examines how interorganizational electronic mail (email) systems are being used and what factors relate to this use. This was accomplished by electronically surveying a randomly selected sample of interorganizational email users. The 613 Internet-based respondents were located in 20 different countries and were from education, business, and government. This research examines the characteristics of interorganizational email users, their perceptions of task and channel attributes, and the relationship between these characteristics and interorganizational email use. Three empirically derived patterns of interorganizational email use emerged that showed it was regularly used for broadcast, task, and social communication. Broadcast usage, which reflects an informationgathering communication function, most likely through public bulletin boards, electronic discussion groups, and list servers, was the most frequent use of interorganizational email. Multivariate regression tests showed that the three different usage types were best predicted from different sets of independent variables. Results support past claims that there is a need to differentiate among types of use in explaining computermediated communication usage behavior. Implications and recommendations for both researchers and practitioners are drawn from the results.     

PLANT‐LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ORIENTATION: THE INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT VIEWS AND PLANT CHARACTERISTICS

As customers, the public and other stakeholders are increasingly demanding that manufacturing firms improve their approach to environmental management, some plants have moved to develop an orientation that is increasingly proactive. Synthesizing earlier research, environmental management orientation is defined here to include system analysis and planning, organizational responsibility, and management controls. The relationship between a proactive orientation and two sets of internal factors, specifically the personal views of plant managers and plant‐specific characteristics, was tested using survey data from the furniture industry. The production outlook for the plant was critical, with a favorable outlook fostering a more proactive environmental management orientation. After controlling for plant‐specific factors, personal views also were influential; an increasing emphasis on short‐term economic value was related to a more reactive plant‐level orientation. Thus senior corporate management can foster strong plant‐level environmental management through a more balanced emphasis on economic and ethical values and continued investment in a plant's long‐term viability.     

REENGINEERING CHANNEL REORDERING PROCESSES TO IMPROVE TOTAL SUPPLY-CHAIN PERFORMANCE

This paper discusses the relationship between business process reengineering and channel performance for firms implementing electronic data interchange (EDI) linkages within the U.S. grocery industry. Both quantitative and qualitative data sources are combined to test the hypothesis that channel transformation involving adoption of EDI and redesign of replenishment processes enables performance improvements more than an order of magnitude greater than implementation of EDI alone. This new process, enabled by EDI, provides retailers with 50- 100% higher inventory turns for products on continuous replenishment processes (CRP) relative to retailer performance using traditional ordering processes. Firms adopting EDI without using CRP to reengineer the ordering processes have failed to realize any statistically significant improvements in either inventory levels or warehouse stockouts. This research provides evidence to support the claims of process reengineering that are common in the popular business press, but for which statistically significant empirical evidence is minimal. The findings of the research also demonstrate the potential improvements that firms can realize through extending the business process reengineering concept to include the firms' entire supply chain.     

虚拟企业中知识流动与组织间学习的研究

虚拟企业既是知识转移和组织间相互学习的有效模式,也是组织获取外部新知识的重要源泉。文章不仅对虚拟企业中的知识流动规律和组织间学习机制进行了深入研究,而且对丰田知识联盟中影响知识流动与组织间学习的四个因素进行了实证分析。     

Discretionary Use of Computers: An Empirically Derived Explanatory Model*

This study identifies variables that explain variations in computer use. Factor analysis of data gathered from 422 business administration faculty reveal eight themes among the independent variables. Seven of these factors significantly discriminate among non, minimal, and high users. These results suggest an empirical model for future studies and provide policy insights for decision makers seeking to stimulate computer usage. Additionally, the study shows that there is much commonality between the previously separate organizational innovation and information systems implementation streams. It also demonstrates that motivation theory may be a valid framework within which to study computer use.     

Electronic Data Interchange: Research Review and Future Directions*

For nearly two decades, electronic data interchange (EDI) has been widely viewed as a technology pivotal to supply chain management that has also provided benefits to firms on multiple levels. Despite a substantial body of literature, there are a number of conflicting and inconclusive research results in this field. In this study, we synthesize the diverse body of research in EDI by organizing the literature into an initial theoretical framework. Based on a meta‐analysis of results from the empirical literature, we seek to clarify conflicting results from the literature in order to develop a more unified theoretical framework of contextual variables associated with EDI adoption factors and outcomes. From a managerial standpoint, our literature‐based framework offers a set of guidelines for making successful EDI adoption and implementation decisions.     

A process-oriented perspective on differential business value creation by information technology: An empirical investigation

The relationship between information technology investments and firm value as an area of inquiry has sustained interest among IS researchers over the past decade. More recently, some have challenged the notion differential value among firms through Information Technology (IT) as it evolves into a ubiquitous utility-like set of technologies. This study examines the relationship between IT and business value from a process-oriented perspective, and also helps to identify the underlying links between IT and its differential business value to firms. By drawing upon economic and organizational theories, this paper develops a process framework to assess the intermediate organizational process capabilities and overall performance of firms that effectively deploy and use IT. Using data from over 80 firms, the study finds empirical support for the differential business value created by IT along a number of process oriented dimensions. These findings are discussed as these results set an optimistic tone for IT as a major causal driver of differentiation.     

A process-oriented perspective of IS success: Examining the impact of IS on operational cost

Effective measurement of information system (IS) success continues to be a top concern for both practitioners and researchers. Labeled the “productivity paradox”, previous attempts to quantify the benefits of IS have often resulted in inconclusive or inconsistent results. The present study contributes to IS success research through the development and empirical testing of a process-oriented model of IS success. Using an operational perspective and combining primary and secondary measures, this study examines the influence of lower-level intangible IS and information technology (IT) benefits on higher-level financial measures. Additionally, we introduce IS plan quality as an antecedent to the model's input variables. Primary survey data from CIOs of primarily Fortune 2000 size firms are combined with secondary data, total operational cost, from Compustat to facilitate the examination of the IS benefits. This study also addresses shortcomings cited in other studies that might have contributed to the productivity paradox by including control variables in the model, defining a research perspective—the operational success perspective—and clearly articulating the level of analysis as the organizational level. The results supported a process-oriented view of the benefits from IS and showed how the effects of IS along a path can lead to better organizational performance, in this case, lower overall costs. These results are discussed and future research implications are presented.     

Modes of Response to Marketing Communications Failures in the Computer Services Industry

Chief executives of 186 computer services companies participated in a survey designed to establish (i) how firms in this sector were likely to respond to serious failures in their marketing communications programmes, and (ii) the factors affecting the mode of response. Businesses can react to a failure radically or conservatively. Radical responses might involve the dismissal of marketing managers, extensive reorganization of the marketing department and the implementation of radical changes in current programmes. Alternatively, a company could intensify the continuation of existing programmes; support, develop and mentor employees; and slightly modify rather than fundamentally alter its current marketing‐communications activities. A number of variables identified from academic literature concerning general organization decline and innovation were applied to the examination of corporate responses to marketing communications failures. In particular, hypotheses were developed and tested regarding the possible influences of managerial rigidity, internal power diffusion, organizational complexity and degree of formality, resource slack and decision‐making style.     

Swiftness and Intensity of Administrative Innovation Adoption: An Empirical Study of TQM in Information Systems

Considerable attention has been directed toward developing a more complete understanding of innovation adoption by Information Systems (IS) departments. Much of this research has focused on the adoption of technological innovations, and limited research has focused on the adoption of administrative innovations. This paper focuses on an administrative innovation that is increasingly becoming popular among IS departments, namely Total Quality Management (TQM) in systems development. A synthesis of the IS innovation and TQM literatures was conducted to identify environmental, organizational, and task‐related factors that should relate to both the swiftness and the intensity of TQM adoption. The relationships between the identified variables and TQM adoption were examined using data collected from 123 IS departments in Fortune 1000 firms and large government agencies in the U.S. The results indicate that TQM adoption in systems development is influenced by the host organization's quality orientation and factors internal to the IS department including IS management support for quality, the presence of a separate quality assurance function, and the structural complexity of the IS department. Implications of this study for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.     

International Evidence on the Determinants of Organizational Ethical Vulnerability

This paper proposes a model to explain what makes organizations ethically vulnerable. Drawing upon legitimacy, institutional, agency and individual moral reasoning theories we consider three sets of explanatory factors and examine their association with organizational ethical vulnerability. The three sets comprise external institutional context, internal corporate governance mechanisms and organizational ethical infrastructure. We combine these three sets of factors and develop an analytical framework for classifying ethical issues and propose a new model of organizational ethical vulnerability. We test our model on a sample of 253 firms that were involved in ethical misconduct and compare them with a matched sample of the same number of firms from 28 different countries. The results suggest that weak regulatory environment and internal corporate governance, combined with profitability warnings or losses in the preceding year, increase organizational ethical vulnerability. We find counterintuitive evidence suggesting that firms’ involvement in bribery and corruption prevention training programmes is positively associated with the likelihood of ethical vulnerability. By synthesizing insights about individual and corporate behaviour from multiple theories, this study extends existing analytical literature on business ethics. Our findings have implications for firms’ external regulatory settings, corporate governance mechanisms and organizational ethical infrastructure.     

Leadership in Interorganizational Networks: A Literature Review and Suggestions for Future Research

The present review is an investigation of the ways in which interorganizational networks coordinate their activities for the benefit of all parties. In this context ‘interorganizational networks’ consist of three or more separate, collaborating entities, and the question of their leadership has been well researched in a number of disciplines. Its interest to economic actors is growing. However, the findings of studies that have focused on leadership in such networks are somewhat incoherent. As demonstrated in the present review, this incoherence largely results from the consideration of different forms of network (e.g. hierarchical vs heterarchical), levels of analysis (e.g. organizational vs network), and terms used to describe the phenomena (e.g. governance or orchestration, quite apart from leadership). Against this background, the present review contributes to the body of knowledge on this topic in two main areas. First, the literature is reviewed in order to provide an overview of the key characteristics of forms of network and levels of analysis. Moreover, the view that leadership in such networks influences all members in order to ‘make things happen’ is suggested. Secondly, future avenues of research are identified in order to stimulate progress in this important area of study.     

反应型和先动型市场导向对产品创新和经营绩效的影响研究

探讨了反应型和先动型市场导向是否影响以及如何影响利用式创新和探索式创新,进而影响企业的经营绩效。对227家制造型企业的问卷调查研究结果显示:①反应型和先动型市场导向及利用式和探索式创新量表在我国制造业环境下具有良好的信度和效度;②2种类型市场导向对2种程度的创新均具有正向影响,其中,先动型市场导向对组织创新和企业绩效的促进作用更为明显;③2种类型的创新都有助于改善企业绩效;④创新均衡对企业绩效的改善也有显著作用。此外,研究为我国制造企业在何种程度上采纳市场导向战略管理工具来改善组织创新和经营绩效,提供了管理上的启示。