Interorganizational Systems Research Articles

An Inter-Organizational Decision Support System for Global Supply Chain Management

The success of global supply chain management often rests on the information sharing capabilities of trading partners in the global business network. As such, inter-organisational collaboration, which can facilitate cross-organisational information sharing, is essential for global supply chain management. To enhance inter-organisation collaboration, multinational firms (MNFs) should nurture corporate culture that encourages the real-time exchanges of business intelligence about foreign markets and customer behaviours through a series of information and communication technology (ICT). One of the useful tools for creating such culture is an inter-organisational decision support system (IODSS) that can coordinate and synchronise the flow of information across the global supply chain, while increasing business intelligence capabilities. As such, today's DSS should undergo dramatic metamorphoses on a global scale. This paper synthesises the evolution of IODSS over the last few decades, develops a basic architecture of IODSS, and then suggests practical guidelines for its successful implementation in global business environments.

Improving Transplant Medication Safety Through a Technology and Pharmacist Intervention (ISTEP): Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundMedication errors, adverse drug events, and nonadherence lead to increased health care utilization and increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes, including graft loss, in solid organ transplant recipients. Veterans living with organ transplants represent a population that is at substantial risk for medication safety events and fragmented care coordination issues. To improve medication safety and long-term clinical outcomes in veteran transplant patients, interventions should address interorganizational system failures and provider-level and patient-level factors.ObjectiveThis study aims to measure the clinical and economic effectiveness of a pharmacist-led, technology-enabled intervention, compared with usual care, in veteran organ transplant recipients.MethodsThis is a 24-month prospective, parallel-arm, cluster-randomized, controlled multicenter study. The pharmacist-led intervention uses an innovative dashboard system to improve medication safety and health outcomes, compared with usual posttransplant care. Pharmacists at 10 study sites will be consented into this study before undergoing randomization, and 5 sites will then be randomized to each study arm. Approximately, 1600 veteran transplant patients will be included in the assessment of the primary outcome across the 10 sites.ResultsThis study is ongoing. Institutional review board approval was received in October 2018 and the study opened in March 2019. To date there are no findings from this study, as the delivery of the intervention is scheduled to occur over a 24-month period. The first results are expected to be submitted for publication in August 2021.ConclusionsWith this report, we describe the study design, methods, and outcome measures that will be used in this ongoing clinical trial. Successful completion of the Improving Transplant Medication Safety through a Technology and Pharmacist Intervention study will provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of a feasible and scalable technology-enabled intervention on improving medication safety and costs.Clinical TrialClinicalTrials.gov NCT03860818; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03860818International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)PRR1-10.2196/13821

Organizational Factors Influencing Inclination to Use a B2B Website by a Buyer-Supplier Dyad : The Indian Context

Business-to-Business electronic commerce websites are a common form of inter-organizational systems that span organizational boundaries and enables organizations to exchange information in a seamless fashion. To reap the desired benefits it is important that the website be used in the intended manner. The level and extent of use of a business-to-business website depends partly on the inclination to use the website by the users in the primary organization and in the user organizations independently and the combined inclination of the organizations together. This combined inclination is referred to as the System Inclination, with dominance playing a key role. Each organization has certain characteristics of its own and may differ significantly in their inclination to use. It is important to analyze the factors that determine this inclination to use, so that organizations can adopt appropriate management mechanisms to control it. This paper proposes a framework to explain the organizational factors and their influence on the inclination to use a website, based on study of four Indian buyer-supplier dyads. Inclination to use is found to be influenced by factors like top management support, website characteristics, adequate support mechanisms, user group orientation towards electronic commerce and basic IT drive among the employees, at both the primary and user organizations.

일본 항공사의 여객서비스시스템 도입 사례연구 －자국지역지향 및 조직간시스템 도입 이론적 관점에서-

일본 항공사의 여객서비스시스템 도입 사례연구 －자국지역지향 및 조직간시스템 도입 이론적 관점에서-

Factors Affecting the Offshore Deployment of Interorganizational Systems in China: A Case Study Analysis

ABSTRACTBecause of the significant market potential in China, many international enterprises are moving their production line to China. Accompanying production offshoring is the shifting of information systems to ensure that the production processes remain efficient and effective both at home and abroad. However, many enterprises encounter problems while deploying offshore information systems in China, especially when the systems are interorganizational systems (IOS) that span organizational boundaries and involve the management of relationships among participants. Therefore, this paper aims to identify critical success factors of offshore interorganizational systems in China through a case study of a supply chain relationship based on an e-procurement system between a Taiwanese personal computer manufacturer and its Chinese partners. Although this system had been well used by Taiwanese users, the performance of this system in China was relatively unsatisfactory in terms of grant complaints from Chinese users. Based on the relational view of the firm, four IOS-specific relational factors are proposed and examined: (1) IOS-specific assets, (2) IOS knowledge-sharing routines, (3) system complementarity, and (4) IOS governance. The case analysis reveals that effective IOS governance most strongly affects the results of offshoring in China, whereas system complementarity has the least influence.

Investigation of Ecosystem Services and Circular Economy Interactions under an Inter-organizational Framework

Nowadays, the conceptualization of circular economy is an attractive managerial tool among governments and businesses throughout the word, while ecosystem services are a contentious issue due to the particular needs of humans’ well-being. At this review the interactions between the principles of ecosystem services and the circular economy were investigated in the light of inter-organizational systems. This evaluation was based on more and more complex processes, while the integration of the growing circular economy concept within the shrinking parent ecosystem unveiled challenges and constraints for products’ end of life and quality. It was argued that: (a) The existence of social and people-related barriers can be considered under three groups, namely, the “sustainable provision and modeling schemes”, “socio-cultural appreciation and payment schemes”, and “regulatory and maintenance schemes”, (b) The impacts of circular economy—ecosystem services toward an inter-organizational functional stream model associated with distinguished proactive and post treatment risk values (c) The functionality and the accountability of the technosphere are the two critical components to support the restorative and the regenerative perspectives of the biosphere. The aforementioned findings unveiled new emerging paths to be further investigated, offering a deeper appraisal of circular economy under the inter-organizational perception.

Outsourced supply chains as a complex adaptive system

PurposeFirms in the early stage of their organisational lifecycle (ESFs) are subject to concerns founded on a requirement for strategic flexibility, prompting engagement in inter-organisational relationships such as outsourcing. However, studies of the management control dynamics of these relationships are rare. This paper aims to respond by empirically examining the influence of ESF managers on the ongoing management control of such relationships.Design/methodology/approachA single outsourcing case study is utilised to provide evidence in examining a multi-theoretical framework that adopts a complex adaptive system (CAS) perspective as a qualitative analytical framework, along with the existing accounting theory on control adoption.FindingsFocused on management concerns with tensions between inter-organisational control and strategic flexibility, this paper identifies reasons for the adoption of management controls by an ESF. The inter-organisational system explored in this paper emphasises the importance of adopting a holistic epistemology in understanding changes in control adoption.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper extends current theoretical perspectives on control adoption to consider the inter-organisational control concerns of ESF managers.Practical implicationsThe insights identified in this paper provide a systemic framework to identify potential organisational and environmental influences on control problems, emphasising environmental co-evolution rather than achievement of ideal equilibrium states.Originality/valueThe intended contribution is to extend the management control literature to consider the effect of organisational lifecycle on the adoption of new inter-organisational management controls in the wake of ongoing trade-off between competing inter-organisational requirements.

Interorganizational processes in buyer–supplier dyads: An information intensity perspective

ABSTRACTIn an increasingly global business environment, organizations interact with partners, suppliers and customers who are geographically spread and exchange information regularly. Without a robust information technology infrastructure, the speed and effectiveness of this information exchange is limited. Business-to-business (B2B) electronic business applications are a class of interorganizational information systems (IOIS) that facilitate such information exchange arising out of interorganizational processes (IOPs). The success of any e-business initiative depends on the successful implementation and the actual use of such IOIS. This study uses the concept of information intensity (II) to identify the information sharing requirements arising from IOPs, thus presenting opportunities for B2B Web site use, with specific reference to organization-specific customer-facing and supplier-facing IOIS. We use data from four buyer–supplier dyads, eight medium- to large-scale organizations in the Indian context and identify a generic set of dominant IOPs in buyer–supplier interactions. Through these we present the sources of II in IOPs along three dimensions – complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity which influence the feature set in the IOISs. We conclude with implications for IOIS design, implementation and use.

Organizational Trust and Accountability Reforms in Public Management: Analysis of Inter-agency Implementation Relations in Kenya

ABSTRACTContemporary governments have persistently responded to accruing implementation blind-spots by further restructuration of public bureaucracies. This has come with increased agencification and coordination efforts to enhance organizational efficacy and to produce trust for legitimation purposes. Accountability reforms in particular rarely address non-formal implementation processes that seem to characterize these efforts, mainly, inter-organizational trust. This is despite mounting evidences on the centrality of organizational trust in collaborative implementation processes of policy reforms. Basing on qualitative data from Kenya, this paper explores the production of organizational trust and its influence on the implementation environments for accountability reforms between oversight and governmental institutions. Data indicate that common difficulties in collaborative-implementation framework like fragile horizontal accountability-relations, misinterpretations of authority, obsession with control and autonomy, poor organizational-communication mechanisms, public trust deficits, poor internalization and institutionalization, etc. also correspond to problems of organizational trust. So, it is suggested that besides building public and interpersonnel trust, a policy design should also device steps that can strengthen internal-accountability systems, reduce some forms of bureaucratic slackness, enhance interorganizational communication and justice systems. This should improve inter-agency trust and ease cultural-instrumental tensions typical in collaborative implementation relations common in modern public administration.

A hybrid IT framework for identifying high-quality physicians using big data analytics

Patients face difficulties identifying appropriate doctors owing to the sizeable quantity and uneven quality of information in online healthcare communities. In studying physician searches, researchers often focus on expertise similarity matches and sentiment analyses of reviews. However, the quality is often ignored. To address patients' information needs holistically, we propose a four-dimensional IT framework based on signaling theory. The model takes expertise knowledge, online reviews, profile descriptions (e.g., hospital reputation, number of patients, city) and service quality (e.g., response speed, interaction frequency, cost) as signals that distinguish high-quality physicians. It uses machine learning approaches to derive similarity matches and sentiment analysis. It also measures the relative importance of the signals by multi-criterion analysis and derives the physician rankings through the aggregated scores. Our study revealed that the proposed approach performs better compared with the other two recommend techniques. This research expands the boundary of signaling theory to healthcare management and enriches the literature on IT use and inter-organizational systems. The proposed IT model may improve patient care, alleviate the physician-patient relationship and reduce lawsuits against hospitals; it also has practical implications for healthcare management.

An Explanatory Case Study on Passenger Service Systems Adoption: A Taiwanese Air Carrier

This study explains the adoption of Passenger Service Systems (PSS) in airlines through the lens of Inter-organizational Systems adoption and home-region orientation. It examined 20 causal factors influencing PSS adoption and tested an original research model in the technology–organization–environment context, by applying transactional cost theory and neo-institutional theory. Prior to a cross-case study across multiple airlines, the explanatory single-case research analyzed interview data from four informants with a Taiwanese carrier and multiple industry reports; the key findings highlight: (i) interoperable functionality and industry standards as external technological drivers strongly influenced full conversion to the PSS platform; (ii) within the organizational context, commitment to global network, organizational transformation and top management support were identified as salient internal factors in decision-making and resource allocation, while normative pressures from an alliance body exerted a stronger influence over the airline than any other isomorphic forces; and (iii) in the context of environment, full conversion was also facilitated by PSS vendors and powered by the need for mutual worldwide learning to effectively operate foreign markets from home region. This in-depth case study provides insights that PSS in a common-use environment can bring business value to PSS user airlines in accessing a broader global market, offering greater competitive services and expanding distribution channels. To increase causality and generalizability, future work involving an embedded multi-case study with three East Asian carriers will be undertaken.

Coordination model in Hinterland chain of hub-and-spoke global logistics

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to develop an inter-organizational model of coordination in hinterland chain of hub-and-spoke in global logistics, where dryport works as a spoke and seaport as a hub.Design/methodology/approach: The model built will define a conceptual model in order to coordinate several actors involved in handling the flow of goods and the flow of information (documents) in exporting goods via dryport, where their activities are interdependence. Therefore the first step was to investigate an existing business process of export system via dryport. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is used to identify bottleneck in existing system and simplify the process. The third step was benchmarking coordination in selected country that have similarity of hinterland characteristics with Indonesia (archipelago country), and exporting agricultural or animal products. After that several alternatives conceptual model of coordination will be proposed, of which the development based on inter-organizational system (IOS) approach. The model is then evaluated by experts to choose the best conceptual model of coordination that suits the real system, especially in Indonesia. The choosen model then being validated by developing simulation using agent-based approach and discrete-event simulation.Findings: The findings of this research is coordination mechanism in export process. There are two basic mechanisms in document preparation, three basic mechanisms in quarantine inspection, and three basic mechanisms in inland transportation and handling. The proposed model using a single connection and single submission to handling coordination among actors.Originality/value: The paper provide coordination of inter-organizational system among involved actors in handling physical flow of goods and flow of information (documents) in arranging exporting goods via dryport (hub-and-spoke typology). Moreover, scope of research is hinterland (outside seaport) with coordination that considering flow of information in hub-and-spoke concept was rarely done by other researchers.

A Contingent/Assimilation Framework for Public Interorganizational Systems Decisions: Should the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Consolidate Information Technology Services?

Many times, benefit-opportunity-cost-risk (BOCR) information system (IS)-related decisions are based mainly on short-term financial variables. We propose a broader decision-making framework, using contingency theory to identify environmental specific factors and assimilation theory to identify post-implementation factors to be considered in the decision. This approach is demonstrated within the context of a case study: the decision to merge the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County IS functions using an analytic network process (ANP)/BOCR analysis. ANP is a multi-criteria decision-making approach toward making decisions taking into account multiple criteria, alternatives and their interrelationships. The contingency/assimilation approach proposed here can be used in all sorts of IS decisions while the proposed IS merge decision model can be applied, with some contextual modifications, to similar public IS merge decisions. In addition, the ANP/BOCR approach is meticulously explained to serve as a useful reference for prospective users.

From traditional interorganisational systems to cloud-based solutions: The impact on supply chain flexibility

ABSTRACTThe fast changing business environment and the intensive market competition forces firms to adjust and remodel their business strategy continuously. As a solution, firms seek flexibility, not only internally but also at the level of their supply chain. To accomplish this, companies invest in information technology (IT), aiming to improve their business processes and collaboration with trading partners. As previous research supports, the use of IT combined with agile supply chain management improves business performance and offers sustainable competitive advantage. However, the extent to which IT enables and supports supply chain flexibility is still debatable and warrants investigation. Although contemporary Internet-based systems (web-based platforms and cloud-based solutions) seem to overcome the rigidity and inflexibility of traditional interorganisational systems (IOS), they are still associated with issues of interoperability and incompatibility. Although they facilitate supply chain collaboration, by providing access to all stakeholders and enabling information-sharing, they may often lead to closed networks of collaboration. To examine these issues, this paper primarily aims to clarify the notion of flexibility at the level of the supply chain. It also aims to contribute to the process by which organisations effectively evaluate and prioritise competing IT investments. Taking into consideration the multidimensional nature of flexibility, this paper proposes a conceptual framework of supply chain flexibility, distinguishing between the operational, structural, and strategic levels of flexibility. It then uses this framework to explain the impact of IT infrastructures (specifically comprising traditional IOS, web-based collaboration platforms and cloud-based solutions) on the various levels of flexibility. Based on previous research, it identifies specific IT characteristics and provides an approach through which practitioners and researchers can compare different technologies and analyse their benefits and limitations, in terms of supply chain flexibility.

Governance lessons from an interorganizational health information system implementation in Ethiopia

AbstractThe paper investigates interorganizational health information system implementation in a developing country health sector and the influence of the sociopolitical context that constitutes the institutions of the global health system. It argues that a comprehensive understanding of interorganizational system (IOS) implementation should include the study of the institutional context and its stakeholders who exhibit complex social and political attributes that influences its implementation and trajectory. This paper charts this course by examining the key governance dimensions of coordination and alignment. Building on this, the study challenges the viability of the unstructured institutional arrangements and the ensuing development modalities for health information system implementation, which are largely facilitated by international nongovernmental organizations and leverage on information and communication technology. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the study. These include (1) the influence of unstructured interorganizational relations, at both the organizational and sector levels, on IOS adoption, (2) how the social and political behaviors of opportunistic interorganizational participants are implicated in the IOS adoption process, and (3) the role of strategic alignment, largely driven by the informal interorganizational relationship and social dimensions, on the prioritization and fit between IOS technological and organizational components.

Contribution of Information Technology to Corporate Performance Through Social Benefits in Market Orientation

The main role of information technology is to make business processes more integrated, faster, more precise, and the information needed is always available when needed in accordance with its contribution. The purpose of this study is to provide a global platform where individuals and organizations interact, communicate, collaborate and obtain information with information technology strategies in support of business strategies with a social benefit perspective of a market-oriented strategy. This social research is done by descriptive design using exploration method. The findings show that investment in interorganizational systems strongly supports the development of market orientation capabilities.

Leveraging Open E-Logistic Standards to Achieve Ambidexterity in Supply Chain

ABSTRACT This paper examines how open e-logistic standards (OELS) affect firm performance through developing supply chain ambidexterity. We conceptualize supply chain process ambidexterity as the ability of a firm to simultaneously develop alignment and process adaptability capabilities. A questionnaire was designed to collect data from Mainland China. To test the hypotheses, three-stage least squares estimation was employed. The results show that OELS adoption can enhance supply chain process ambidexterity and positively impact operational and financial performance. The influence of ambidexterity on operational performance is constrained by relationship duration while its influence on financial performance is enhanced by the number of suppliers. Our study suggests that OELS, through balancing the contradictory requirements of integration and flexibility, can lead to ambidexterity in the supply chain. This study contributes to the ambidexterity literature and interorganizational systems literature by empirically confirming that OELS are effective boundary-spanning mechanisms to leverage organizational ambidexterity.

MENTORING IN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS: A TOOL FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Traditional mentoring that takes places between a mentor and a mentee who belong to the same organization has been professionally studied during the last four decades. In engineering discipline, mentoring has been used within companies in an intuitive and not very systematic way, mainly for knowledge management, transfer and also in order to develop key competences. In that sense, professional associations can play a fundamental role in the systematization of mentoring programs that help the integral development of engineers. The changing organizational environment determines that professionals must develop in wider facets and in a very rapid way. In response to the precedent need, new forms of alternative mentoring have arisen and represent an opportunity for engineers. That is why their implementation through professional associations should be studied, as other disciplines do already. This contribution presents the principal mentoring modalities that have been applied in the professional sphere and proposes the key elements for the implementation of inter-organizational mentoring systems through engineering professional associations as an additional way of providing added value to their collegiate members. The conclusions of this work show singular advantages for this type of alternative mentoring, that can be explained because of the need of the mentee to learn beyond his / her organization and because the nature of the relationship transcends to the organization itself. Likewise, a series of steps are proposed in order to follow the exploration of this alternative mentoring phenomena.

Uncertainty Perspective and the Adoption of Inter-Organizational Systems (IOS) Over the Internet in Small Businesses

In this research an uncertainty perspective is suggested to explain intent to adopt inter-organizational systems (IOS) over the Internet among small businesses. IOS adoption poses uncertainty for small businesses that cannot be certain about value generated unless such systems are widely adopted by business partners. Measures of different sources of perceived uncertainty, motivation, and IT-readiness are used to predict adoption. The findings support that uncertainty has negative effect and motivation and IT readiness a positive effect on intent to adopt IOS. Thus, efforts to enhance IOS adoption over the internet among small businesses must address perceived uncertainty convincingly both at the product and campaign levels.

Measuring quality in community nursing: a mixed-methods study

Background High-quality nursing care is crucial for patients with complex conditions and comorbidities living at home, but such care is largely invisible to health planners and managers. Nursing care quality in acute settings is typically measured using a range of different quality measures; however, little is known about how service quality is measured in community nursing. Objective To establish which quality indicators (QIs) are selected for community nursing; how these are selected and applied; and their usefulness to service users (patients and/or carers), commissioners and provider staff. Design A mixed-methods study comprising three phases. (1) A national survey was undertaken of ‘Commissioning for Quality and Innovation’ indicators applied to community nursing care in 2014/15. The data were analysed descriptively using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). (2) An in-depth case study was conducted in five sites. Qualitative data were collected through observations, interviews, focus groups and documents. A thematic analysis was conducted using QSR NVivo 10 (QSR International, Warrington, UK). The findings from the first two phases were synthesised using a theoretical framework to examine how local and distal contexts affecting care provision impacted on the selection and application of QIs for community nursing. (3) Validity testing the findings and associated draft good practice guidance through a series of stakeholder engagement events held in venues across England. Setting The national survey was conducted by telephone and e-mail. Each case study site comprised a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and its associated provider of community nursing services. Participants Survey – 145 (68.7%) CCGs across England. Case study NHS England national and regional quality leads (n = 5), commissioners (n = 19), provider managers (n = 32), registered community nurses (n = 45); and adult patients (n = 14) receiving care in their own homes and/or carers (n = 7). Findings A wide range of indicators was used nationally, with a major focus on organisational processes. Lack of nurse and service user involvement in indicator selection processes had a negative impact on their application and perceived usefulness. Indicator data collection was hampered by problematic information technology (IT) software and connectivity and interorganisational system incompatibility. Front-line staff considered indicators designed for acute settings inappropriate for use in community settings. Indicators did not reflect aspects of care, such as time spent, kindness and respect, that were highly valued by front-line staff and service user participants. Workshop delegates (commissioners, provider managers, front-line staff and service users, n = 242) endorsed the findings and drafted good practice guidance. Limitations Ongoing service reorganisation during the study period affected access to participants in some sites. The limited available data precluded an in-depth documentary analysis. Conclusions The current QIs for community nursing are of limited use. Indicators will be enhanced by involving service users and front-line staff in identification of suitable measures. Resolution of connectivity and compatibility challenges should assist implementation of new IT packages into practice. Modifications are likely to be required to ensure that indicators developed for acute settings are suitable for community. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods will better represent community nursing service quality. Future work Future research should investigate the appropriate modifications and associated costs of administering QI schemes in integrated care settings. Funding The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.