Information Technology Alliance Research Articles

Strategic information technology alliances for effective health-care supply chain management

To gain and sustain competitive advantage, health-care providers have to continuously review and renovate their operational and information technology (IT) strategies through collaborative and cooperative endeavour with their supply chain channel members. This paper explores new ways of enhancing a health-care organization's responsiveness to changes and increasing its competitiveness through implementing strategic information technology alliances among channel members in a health-care supply chain network. An overview of issues and problems (e.g. bullwhip effect, negative externalities and free-riding phenomenon in multichannel supply chains) presented in the health-care supply chains is first delineated. This paper further goes over the issues of health-care supply chain coordination and integration for strategic IT alliances, followed by the discussion of the spillover effect of IT investments. A number of viable IT practices (such as information sharing and Internet-enabled supply chain portal) for effective health-care supply chain collaboration and coordination are then examined in this research. Finally, the paper discusses how strategic IT alliances can help improve the effectiveness of health-care supply chain management.

The evolution of trust in information technology alliances

As strategic alliances become an increasingly important weapon for companies in achieving a competitive advantage, an important subject of investigation has become those factors that contribute to the success of the alliance. Trust between the alliance partners has been proposed to be one of those critical success factors. The high levels of uncertainty and interdependence that characterizes high technology alliances make trust particularly important in these contexts. Very little is known, however, about the process of trust creation or erosion in strategic alliances. This study addresses this shortcoming in cross-sectional trust research by utilizing a longitudinal survey design to examine the antecedents and outcomes of trust formation between strategic alliance partners. We contrast a transaction cost economics view of trust with a social exchange perspective to more fully explore what may influence changes in the level of trust between partners. Results suggest that the development of trust was not a function of the formal incentive systems that transaction cost economists deem necessary to prevent opportunistic behavior. Conversely, factors from social exchange theory – communication, shared values, and relationship equity – provide a more thorough explanation of what contributes to the development of higher levels of organizational trust. Finally, this study provides evidence that as trust increases between partners, the alliance benefits by displaying higher levels of dependence, higher levels of partner learning, and higher levels of performance.

Technology R&D alliances and firm value

This article empirically examines the market reaction to the announcement of an information technology research and development (ITR&D) strategic alliance. Strategic alliances are typically hypothesized to add value to the partnering firms since they provide similar benefits as a merger or acquisition with increased flexibility. However, unlike the extensive research into the market response to mergers and acquisitions, scant empirical evidence exists on the valuation impact of strategic alliances and the evidence that does exist is mixed. This study extends prior research by focusing solely on ITR&D alliances and by controlling for a previously documented size effect. We find a significant positive abnormal return surrounding the announcement of information technology alliances. Further analysis reveals that this result is not related to the relative size of the partner. This last result is in contrast to prior research that argues that strategic alliances result in an asymmetric gain benefiting the smaller partner more than the larger partner in the alliance.

Strategic Flexibility in Information Technology Alliances: The Influence of Transaction Cost Economics and Social Exchange Theory

Utilizing a model drawn from both transaction cost economics and social exchange theory, we analyze determinants of strategic flexibility in a sample of strategic alliances involved in joint development agreements or joint research pacts. Findings indicate that, in general, determinants suggested by transaction cost economics provided flexibility in modification and inflexibility in exit. From social exchange theory, trust was found to be positively related to both types of flexibility while another component of social exchange theory, dependence, was found to be negatively related to the strategic flexibility of the alliance. Results also found that factors suggested by both transaction cost economic theory and social exchange theory were related to the concept of trust. Economic constraints as suggested by transaction cost economics were positively related to trust between the alliance partners while dependence was negatively related to trust. Additionally, the quality of communication and the existence of shared values were positively related to trust between the exchange partners. Results provide support for the role of determinants from both transaction cost economics and social exchange theory in the flexibility of strategic alliances.