Information Technology, Contract Completeness, and Buyer-Supplier Relationships

The theory of incomplete contracts has been used to study the relationship between buyers and suppliers following the deployment of modern information technology to facilitate coordination between them. Previous research has sought to explain anecdotal evidence from some industries on the recent reduction in the number of suppliers selected to do business with buyers, by appealing to relationship-specific costs that suppliers may incur. In contrast, this paper emphasizes the fact that information technology enables greater completeness of buyer-supplier contracts through more economical monitoring of additional dimensions of supplier performance. The number of terms included in the contract is an imperfect substitute for the number of suppliers. Based on this result, alternative conditions are identified under which increased use of information technology leads to a reduction in the number of suppliers without invoking relationship-specific costs. Conditions are also identified when increased use of information technology leads to an increase in the number of suppliers

A study of compliance management in information systems research

Regulatory compliance has become a critical concern for many industries around the globe and investment to achieve compliance has increased drastically inline with that concern. While Information Systems (IS) are considered a part of the support architecture, anecdotal evidence suggests that organisations struggle with finding the right tools and guidance on approaches for compliance management. For this reason, we undertake a review of the current research on compliance management topics in the Information Systems domain, with the ultimate goal to carry out a gap-analysis between research-based solutions and the current needs of compliance management professionals. In this paper, we consider thirteen Information Systems journals and perform an exhaustive analysis of the type of compliance management research published at these venues in the last five years. The analysis found forty-five relevant articles, which were then further classified depending on the type of their contribution. The results of the analysis suggest that IS research in managing compliance has received increasing attention in the recent years. The study also suggests that research has predominantly focussed on exploratory studies, rather than proposition of solutions that can assist organizations in their compliance management regimens

SOCIAL NETWORK PRIVACY DISPOSITIONS: AN OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT SCALE AND A CAUSAL MODEL

The Information Systems literature has substantially advanced understanding of privacy in both offline contexts and online environments. Despite the rich understanding, existing studies predominately focused on elucidating privacy issues specific to individuals. The increasingly popular usage of mobile apps with social media integration has fundamentally challenged current understanding and conceptualization of information privacy. In particular, mobile apps allow information collection beyond individuals’ personal scope (i.e., his/her personal information) and extend the scope of acquisition into individuals’ online social networks (i.e., his/her list of friends on Facebook). To fill this gap in the literature, drawing on the Communication Privacy Management Theory, this proposal focuses on three unique dimensions of social network privacy dispositions, namely permeability, ownership, and linkage. Second, we propose to operationalize these three dimensions of social network privacy dispositions using a second-order reflective construct, and we plan to develop an objective measurement scale for it. Lastly, we plan to validate the construct using a nomological network

Leveraging Alliance Networks through Information Technology: Evidence from Panel Regressions

Despite the expectation that Information Technology (IT) is valuable in managing and leveraging multiple alliance relationships and the resultant alliance networks, a paucity in theoretical and empirical examination persists in the literature. Employing social network analysis (SNA), we examined whether IT investment moderates the effect exerted by a firm’s structural properties in alliance networks (direct partners, indirect partners, and structural holes) on its performance. Drawing upon previous research on dynamic capabilities and the knowledge-based view of the firm, we propose a conceptual model and discuss a potential underlying mechanism. Our empirical analysis of 306 U.S. public firms, which provide 971 observations during an 8-year span from 1998 to 2005, suggests that IT investment helps firms to (1) manage the burden of increasing complexity in coordinating multiple alliances, and (2) overcome the relative informational disadvantage resulted from their limited access to indirect partners and structural holes

The Value of IT-Institution Alignment: A Managerial Perspective of IT-Business Alignment

Present commercial software packages have incorporated management insights, and best-practices to facilitate IT-business alignment. However, poor alignment of IT-business still exists in practice. In this study, we investigate the notion of IT-business alignment from a managerial perspective. Our study shows that: 1) IT exhibits a function of sensing to detect problems promptly, whereas institution exhibits a function of responding to solve problems effectively; 2) The alignment process undergoes three major stages: at the first stage, alignment is achieved between institution and IT but not between business process and IT; at the second stage, IT integration succeeds in aligning with the business process but not with the original institution; at the third stage, the organization adapts the existing institution to achieve both IT-institution alignment and IT-business process alignment; 3) It is not always wise to improve IT systems and revise original institution to pursue a higher level in IT-institution alignment

Impact of CRM strategy on relationship commitment and new product development: mediating effects of learning from failure

Despite all the benefits that customer relationship management (CRM) offers to companies, various studies show high rates of failure when implementing CRM schemes. This study aims to explain how CRM can capitalize on the notion of learning behavior from failures in order to improve the relationship building and innovation performance in high technology ventures. Questionnaire survey data were collected from 234 CEOs and General Managers from ICT firms based in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, China. Subsequently, both hierarchical linear regression and SEM was conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings show that CRM positively affects both NPD and commitment to long-term relationships and confirm that learning behaviour from failure mediates the main effects of CRM, which consists of strategic and market orientation foci, in combination with internal marketing and knowledge management. Specifically, although all four aspects of CRM are important to NPD, knowledge management is of particular importance

Brand innovation and social media: knowledge acquisition from social media, market orientation, and the moderating role of social media strategic capability

The study examines the relationships between knowledge acquisition from social media, two forms of market orientation (proactive and reactive), social media strategic capability, and brand innovation strategy in the context of China’s online technology industry. Analysis of 357 online technology ventures, created during the past 6 years, suggests that brand innovation is affected by both knowledge acquisition from social media and market orientation. Social media strategic capability positively affects brand innovation and acts as a moderator between knowledge acquisition, market orientation, and brand innovation. It further enhances both types of market orientations in achieving brand innovation, suggesting that on social media, a customer’s needs, both expressed and latent (or unexpressed), can be identified more comprehensively than that of the traditional setting. Hence, the context of social media provides a different set of rules for competition and strategic behavior, which online technology ventures should note. Implications are useful to improve the current understanding of social media brand innovation strategy, here in China’s dynamic social media scene

Brand innovation and social media: knowledge acquisition from social media, market orientation, and the moderating role of social media strategic capability

The study examines the relationships between knowledge acquisition from social media, two forms of market orientation (proactive and reactive), social media strategic capability, and brand innovation strategy in the context of China’s online technology industry. Analysis of 357 online technology ventures, created during the past 6 years, suggests that brand innovation is affected by both knowledge acquisition from social media and market orientation. Social media strategic capability positively affects brand innovation and acts as a moderator between knowledge acquisition, market orientation, and brand innovation. It further enhances both types of market orientations in achieving brand innovation, suggesting that on social media, a customer’s needs, both expressed and latent (or unexpressed), can be identified more comprehensively than that of the traditional setting. Hence, the context of social media provides a different set of rules for competition and strategic behavior, which online technology ventures should note. Implications are useful to improve the current understanding of social media brand innovation strategy, here in China’s dynamic social media scene

Explaining Variations in Client Extra Costs between Software Projects Offshored to India

Gaining economic benefits from substantially lower labor costs has been reported as a major reason for offshoring labor-intensive information systems (IS) services to low-wage countries; however, if wage differences are so high, why is there such a high level of variation in the economic success between offshored IS projects? This study argues that offshore outsourcing involves a number of extra costs for the client organization that account for the economic failure of offshore projects. The objective is to disaggregate these extra costs into its constituent parts and to explain why they differ between offshored software projects. The focus is set on software development and maintenance projects that are offshored to Indian vendors. A theoretical framework is developed a priori based on transaction cost economics (TCE) and the knowledge-based view of the firm, complemented by factors that acknowledge the specific offshore context. The framework is empirically explored using a multiple case study design including six offshored software projects in a large German Financial Service institution. The results of our analysis indicate that the client incurs post contractual extra costs for four types of activities: (1) requirements specification and design, (2) knowledge transfer, (3) control, and (4) coordination. In projects that require a high level of client-specific knowledge about idiosyncratic business processes and software systems, these extra costs were found to be substantially higher than in projects were more general knowledge was needed. Notably, these costs most often arose independently from the threat of opportunistic behavior, challenging the predominant TCE logic of market failure. Rather, the client extra costs were particularly high in client-specific projects because the effort for managing the consequences of the knowledge asymmetries between client and vendor were particularly high in these projects. Prior experiences of the vendor with related client projects were found to reduce the level of extra costs but could not fully offset the increase in extra costs in highly client-specific projects. Moreover, cultural and geographic distance between client and vendor as well as personnel turnover were found to increase client extra costs. Slight evidence was found, however, that the cost increasing impact of these factors was also leveraged in projects with a high level of required client-specific knowledge (moderator effect)