Transaction Platforms as Flexible Interorganizational Systems: The Case of M-Commerce Payment Services in the Financial Logistical Management of the Dutch Payment Industry

Abstract

The trend of isolated IT outsourcing in the context of the traditional single organization is toward new, interorganizational, and dynamic sourcing-based virtual organizations (VOs). The objective of this paper is to show how transaction platforms, as flexible interorganizational systems, can be designed in order to enable these dynamic sourcing-based VOs. An outline for a descriptive theory of dynamic sourcing-based VOs has therefore been developed on the basis of strategic, structural and operational design variables. Management is considered as systematically influencing these design variables affecting virtual organizational structures and therefore their functioning. Next, the enabling role of the transaction platform as a flexible IOS is introduced. A case study shows how a transaction platform, as a flexible IOS, can be designed for a dynamic sourcing-based VO consisting of different interdependent organizations in the financial logistical management of the Dutch payment industry. The design of transaction platforms is an important challenge for the realization of deconstructed interorganizational structures that enable dynamic sourcing. The message is that insourcing and outsourcing are no longer an isolated issue concerning solely the IT function. Dynamic sourcing becomes a core characteristic of virtual organizations. A design theory for dynamic sourcingbased virtual organizations could therefore be productive.