Information Systems, Alliance Portfolios, and Firm Performance: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.

Abstract

A longstanding body of information systems (IS) research has been devoted to identifying the role of information technology (IT) in enhancing organizational performance. As interorganizational relationships have become an important source of competitive advantage, recent research has examined the role of IT in facilitating interactions between business partners. Much less attention, however, has been paid to the role of IT in developing firm-level internal capabilities for managing such relationships, which become increasingly complex as the number and scope of interorganizational interactions increase. Drawing on theories of dynamic capabilities, the knowledge-based view of the firm, and organizational learning, I develop a theoretical model that posits how IT contributes to the development of firm-level capabilities that enhance alliance performance (Chapter 2). This model suggests that digitized process and knowledge supported by IT contribute to the development process by facilitating organizational learning of alliance-specific tasks, institutionalizing alliance management processes, and increasing the capacity to exploit the knowledge obtained from alliance partners. In Chapter 3, using the event-study methodology, I empirically analyze the influence of a firm’s use of IT-enabled knowledge platforms on the stock price response to a new alliance announcement. In Chapter 4, by employing a social network analysis (SNA) technique, I investigate the interactions between a firm’s IT investment and the alliance network of the firm, as well as their consequent influence on the performance of the firm. In summary, this dissertation presents a new theoretical perspective and empirical evidence regarding the role of IT in the interorganizational relationship management context, with a particular focus on strategic alliances. The prospective contribution of this dissertation to the business value of IT literature is mainly twofold. First, this dissertation investigates the role of IT within a wider range of interorganizational collaborations (i.e. strategic alliances) that goes beyond the primary focus of prior IS studies, which emphasized the supplier-buyer relationship. Second, this dissertation advances understanding of the relations between firm-level IT and organizational capability building.