Characteristics of Interorganizational Relationships and the Structure of Interorganizational Systems: An Exploratory Study

Volume of commerce through web-enabled interorganizational systems like electronic-exchanges has steadily risen over the past years. However, universal acceptance and success of this phenomenon has not materialized. Many exchanges have suffered participation problems and many models have fallen out of favor. We argue that it is important to relate the characteristics of existing inter-firm-relationships to the structure of interorganizational systems, to realize value from such systems. Prior literature has looked into antecedents and use of interorganizational systems, and generalized effect of IT on interorganizational relationships. We extend this literature by articulating that the structure of interorganizational systems is predicted by the characteristics of inter-firm relationships. We define these constructs through underlying variables. We draw from literature that explores the effect of IT on inter-firm relationships, and from organizational theory literature that addresses inter-firm relationships. We put forth propositions that relate the variables.