The Shaping of Inter-Organisational Information Systems: Main Design Considerations of an International Comparative Research Project

Abstract

Based on a critical analysis of the literature on the development and adoption of inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) we propose a new unit of analysis for IOIS studies, define levels of analysis based on this unit in order to organize a large set of variables pertinent to the study of IOIS, and show how this design will be implemented within an international collaborative research project. The main goal of our research is to shed light on the interaction between characteristics of IOIS and their development trajectories on the one hand and characteristics of industries and countries on the other hand. We expect that both, industry characteristics and characteristics of national environments have a significant influence on the type and development of IOIS but submit that understanding of these relationships is in its infancy and that significant new insights can be gained by carefully specifying the network level of analysis. Better understanding of the way IOIS are shaped can greatly assist in evaluating the extent to which adoption experiences in one industry or country can be validly used to inform policy choices in another industry or country.