Structures and evolutionary paths of interorganisational information systems: an international comparison in selected industry segments (IOIS)

Basic data for this project

Description

The main idea of IOIS is the integration of intraorganisational information systems on an interorganisational level to enable the electronic exchange of relevant data between a network of companies. Using the internet as the infrastructure and taking the broad diffusion of ERP into account, new potentials of the usage of IOIS emerge. Based on case studies in different countries and branches, the focal point of this project is to analyse the different structures and evolutionary paths of IOIS respective to the (national) institutional and economic conditions. In order to ensure comparable results, the projects consists of an exploratory and a confirmatory stage. The first, exploratory stage contains the building and testing of the theoretical framework. The theoretical concepts, which are identified to contribute an explanation to the various structures of IOIS, are validated by case studies. The primary industry segment to be analysed within this stage is the distribution of pharmaceuticals. The second, confirmatory stage deals with the empirical testing and disproving of the null hypthesis (“IOIS structures and evolutionary paths predominantly depend on the context of the industry segment, but are not affected by the national conditions.”). Also further hypothesises should be developed which explain the affect of institutional conditions on IOIS in a more detailed way. These two stages are also the initial point of a longitudinal study of evolution of IOIS in the distribution of pharmaceuticals.