Implementing inter-organizational systems (IOS) for strategic advantage: a value-flow framework

Increasingly, organizations have been investing heavily in information systems for greater dyadic coordination and cooperation with each of their key business partners. In this regard, IS research has not kept pace with important theoretical developments in business strategy literature, with little cumulative work being done on the development of a corresponding “business value of IOS” theoretical framework. Motivated by this void in the literature, we develop a value-flow framework that incorporates both a variance and process view of the organizational and inter-organizational dynamics of discovering, creating and realizing value from dyadic IOS implementations. Beyond its utility for research, this study may also provide valuable insights for management practice as it offers an evaluative framework with a focus on inflection points and key interactions during the course of such an implementation.