THE ECOLOGY OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION SHARING

Increasingly, companies use interorganizational information systems to support business process partnerships, such as automatic replenishment systems and other supply chain initiatives, invoicing and payments, and insurance claims processing. Inter-firm networking in turn can increase the visibility of information generated and used by business partners. These business partners may experience intended and unintended impacts from the changes in the partnering relationship, in effect altering the ecology of the organization. Yet IT researchers rarely study an organization’s ecology, focusing instead on impacts upon internal processes. Our goal in this paper is to propose a definition of interorganizational information ecology, to provide IT researchers with a lens through which interorganizational information sharing should be studied. We begin by reviewing principles of ecology from the natural and social sciences and then discuss the emergence of principles of organizational ecology and information ecology within the management literature. We then argue that advances in information technology have been a primary enabler for companies’ focus on interorganizational business processes and that field research on IT-enabled business partnerships must include the impacts upon each partner and the information shared among them. An example from health care demonstrates the usefulness of the concept, and we conclude with suggestions for field-based research on the ecology of interorganizational information sharing

Networks for change: How networks influence organizational change

This paper contributes to the literature on organizational change by examining organizations as social entities embedded in inter-organizational networks. In contrast to extant research that focuses on macro environment and internal factors to explain organizational change we put forth the social network surrounding the firm as a major driver of any change process. In specific we examine organization change as driven by the organizations? positions and relations in an interorganizational network. Our conceptual framework demonstrates that inter-organizational networks are important mid-level environmental factors that complement the macro-environment and internal organizational factors for the study of organizational changes. We conclude with a discussion on normative implications for organizations and avenues for future research.organizational change, social networks

Network and firm antecedents of spin-offs: Motherhooding spin-offs

We advance firm and network conditions that are favorable for the gestation of new spin-offs by entrepreneurial employees that exit the mother firm to constitute their own companies. This type of entrepreneurial activity has some unique characteristics. We suggest that spin-offs from certain parent firms have fundamental network benefits that increase their likelihood of survival and success. These benefits accrue on the form of social resources and a unique embeddedness in networks of other offspring and mother firms, and do not require the spin-offs to engage in any direct exchanges with the parent firm. The process which we call 'motherhood' highlights the potential for a mother-progeny and child-child model that promotes entrepreneurial action through spin-offs, and allow us to understand the conditions under which interorganizational networks of firms emerge and thrive as an entrepreneurial process. We conclude that considering a motherhood process, with the characteristics defined in this paper, contributes to the study of entrepreneurship and network evolution.Entrepreneurship, spin-offs, motherhood, network benefits

Coming From Good Stock: Career Histories and New Venture Formation

We examine how the social structure of existing organizations influences entrepreneurship and suggest that resources accrue to entrepreneurs based on the structural position of their prior employers. We argue that information advantages allow individuals from entrepreneurially prominent prior firms to identify new opportunities. Entrepreneurial prominence also reduces the perceived uncertainty of a new venture. Using a sample of Silicon Valley start-ups, we demonstrate that entrepreneurial prominence is associated with initial strategy and the probability of attracting external financing. New ventures with high prominence are more likely to be innovators; furthermore, innovators with high prominence are more likely to obtain financing

The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory

[Excerpt] Our primary aims in this effort are twofold: to clarify the independent theoretical contributions of institutional theory to analyses of organizations, and to develop this theoretical perspective further in order to enhance its use in empirical research. There is also a more general, more ambitious objective here, and that is to build a bridge between two distinct models of social actor that underlie most organizational analyses, which we refer to as a rational actor model and an institutional model. The former is premised on the assumption that individuals are constantly engaged in calculations of the costs and benefits of different action choices, and that behavior reflects such utility-maximizing calculations. In the latter model, by contrast, \u27oversocialized\u27 individuals are assumed to accept and follow social norms unquestioningly, without any real reflection or behavioral resistance based on their own particular, personal interests. We suggest that these two general models should be treated not as oppositional but rather as representing two ends of a continuum of decision-making processes and behaviors. Thus, a key problem for theory and research is to specify the conditions under which behavior is more likely to resemble one end of this continuum or the other. In short, what is needed are theories of when rationality is likely to be more or less bounded. A developed conception of institutionalization processes provides a useful point of departure for exploring this issue

Interorganizational relationships in higher education: A case study

American higher education is moving into a new phase in which environmental challenges are likely to intensify, threatening the survival of some institutions. Small private colleges, especially those that are reliant on enrollments and the tuition revenue that enrollments generate, are especially vulnerable to environmental challenges. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage with stronger private institutions and state-supported institutions. The formation of interorganizational relationships (IORs) is one coping strategy that may be an important factor for survival.;The purpose of this study is to examine interorganizational relationships in higher education using a comprehensive, theory-based model. The model examines both the partner characteristics and relationship characteristics of IORs. Partner characteristics describe the motivations institutions have for engaging in IOR behavior. It is the resource-based aspect of the model. Relationship characteristics describe the social aspects that help enable and maintain the IOR over time. The performance outcome is essentially the result of the IOR. It is a function of the level of perceived satisfaction among members in the IOR, and the measure of success by which members judge the relationship. Both partner characteristics and relationship characteristics contribute to success.;This was an instrumental case study examining a consortium of six small, private liberal arts colleges. Findings show that partner and relationship characteristics both contribute to the success of the IOR in this case; however, the desire for institutional autonomy is also an important factor in the perceived success of the IOR

Behind the Scenes of Technology Entrepreneurship in Kenya: A Rich Microcosm for Contextualizing and Advancing Global Organization Studies

Technology entrepreneurship is on the rise around the world. In the quest for change, comparative advantage, innovation creation and socioeconomic progress, a turn to entrepreneurial solutions to persistent developmental challenges has provided a powerful and captivating alternative to past solution approaches. As a consequence, innovation clusters have mushroomed, and an enthusiasm for entrepreneurial activity has caught the attention of many in localities as diverse as Kenya’s Silicon Savannah, Nigeria’s Yabacoon Valley, South Africa’s Silicon Cape, Chile’s Chilecon Valley and Germany’s Silicon Allee, to mention just a few. Yet despite this new, vibrant entrepreneurial activity that continuous to nourish a global wave of excitement, we know little about how technology entrepreneurship is actually performed in these disparate places. This doctoral thesis sought to fill this gap by taking a look “behind the scenes” of one of the most prominent innovation clusters in Africa — Kenya’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector. In this empirical setting, industry participants were in the midst of actively negotiating and rationalizing how technology entrepreneurship needs to work to make it a success, to unlock the benefits of a knowledge economy for Kenya and to carve out a space in the global innovation landscape for innovations made in Africa. Three interconnected academic papers form the core of this thesis. The first paper provides a detailed illustration of the local and global prescriptions that influence entrepreneurial action in Kenya’s ICT sector and inspired the conceptualization of a dynamic process model of globalization. The second paper offers a fine-grained view into the work realities of Kenyans and the generation of the multidimensional work portfolios across which workers diversify their activities to achieve economic survival, create wealth and exert agency for change. The third paper is a theoretical piece that theorizes the process of nonnative organizational forms diffusing and becoming adopted in new organizational environments. All in all, the thesis can be seen as an attempt to study the complexities that reign in African economies through an organizational lens and thus to foster a global organizational scholarship research agenda and discourse that can be of benefit to the many rather than just the few

BOUQUETS ARE AS USEFUL AS BRICKBATS: THE INFLUENCE OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS ON THE INNOVATION PROCESS

International audienceThis study investigates how interorganizational citizenship behavior influences the innovationprocess. By investigating interorganizational networks and relationships, we offer newperspectives on how these linkages can serve as sources of innovation that lever competitiveadvantage. We identified seven dimensions of citizenship, and analyzed them with regards todifferent phases of the innovation process (i.e., idea, invention, exploitation). We integrated thenotions of cooperative and collaborative behavior as conditions for citizenship. Our qualitativeinvestigation of the sailing industry cluster in New Zealand demonstrates the utility ofcitizenship to understand, access, and use external resources to innovate. We find that twodimensions of citizenship – advancement and altruism – are most prevalent during the entireinnovation process. Citizenship tends to be embedded in collaborative linkages during the ideaand invention phase, but cooperative linkages are sufficient to develop citizenship during theinvention and exploitation phase. Further research is necessary to generalize the role ofcitizenship for the innovation process

Strategic cost management and performance : the case of environmental costs

Despite recent developments in the stream of research devoted to strategic cost management (SCM), there are limitations found with this research, notably the overemphasis on one component of SCM (executional cost management), the underemphasis on the other component (structural cost management), the insufficiency of links between those two components, and the absence of evidence supporting their link with performance. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between both components of SCM, and financial performance. Two main research questions are investigated: (i) To what extent do executional and structural cost management influence financial performance? (ii) To what extent does structural cost management mediate the link between executional cost management and financial performance? In order to examine the link between SCM and performance, one specific context is investigated, namely environmental costs. The environmental costs reflect an ‘executional’ aspect aimed at managing, controlling and optimizing costs for a given environmental strategy, but also a ‘structural’ aspect based on their influence on the firm's cost structure notably in terms of product design, raw materials used and operational process design. Survey data have been collected on a sample of 319 Canadian manufacturing firms to examine the link between SCM and financial performance