Reports in the popular media attest to the fact that the commercial development of the Web has sparked greater interconnectedness and competition between firms. Under rapid technological and market change and opportunity, firms who have innovative ideas, technologies, and products form alliances to coordinate their resources and fully capitalize on them in a timely fashion. Drawing on interorga...

Supply chain management (SCM) is concerned with the relationship between a company and its suppliers and customers. It is characterized by interorganizational coordination: companies working jointly with their customers and suppliers to integrate activities along the supply chain to effectively supply product to customers. More developed SCM is indicated by systematic integration, i.e. standard...

Although vulnerability is central to many organizational theories of trust, little systematic research exists that specifically examines the relationship between vulnerability and trust. In this paper, we extend the concept of vulnerability to interfirm exchange relations and theorize its role in influencing interorganizational trust. We argue that existing theory on vulnerability and trust hav...

The literature on industrial districts (also referred to as business clusters) has grown out of recognition that spatial proximity among firms supports the formation and exchange of knowledge within an industry and is therefore a source of competitive advantage. While such a ‘territorial’ perspective on interfirm relationships is valuable in highlighting the informal means through which firms c...

Purpose – Business process outsourcing (BPO) has become so prevalent that a new term, the extended enterprise, has arisen to describe this approach to structuring an organization. The purpose of this article is to integrate the information systems and the interfirm governance literatures to develop a framework for the role of trust in the governance of extended enterprises. Design/methodology/a...

This study examines the roles of firm characteristics and environmental factors in the formation of interfirm alliances. Specifically, we examine the dual role of these groups of factors as inducements and opportunities for Chinese high-technology new ventures (HTNVs) in their adoption of agency business activity, a downstream type of alliance involving marketing and distribution of the product...

Beginning in the mid-1980s, policymakers, particularly in rural areas, realized that they could no longer rely only on attracting large branch plants to sustain their economies. Increasing competition from newly developed and less developed low-wage nations was erasing their cost advantages. The more creative development agencies began to rechannel efforts towards stimulating entrepreneurial ac...

IS research has studied how buyers and suppliers can benefit from improved information visibility in supply chains characterized by uncertainty. However, the relation-specific information processing solutions that provide visibility can only be exploited if the two firms engage in sufficient coordination efforts. This work takes a nuanced look at how dyadic benefits are derived in the supply ch...