The Effects of Information Technology and Service-Oriented Architectures on Joint Venture Value

Alliances represent a variety of governance contexts, and hence provide a rich empirical setting for studying the value-creation mechanisms of Information Technology (IT). We examine the influence of IT investment and flexible IT infrastructure, through Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), in the effect of alliance activity on firm performance. We find that the marginal contribution of each joint venture to intangible firm value increases with investment in IT and in SOA. We also find that the impacts of IT and SOA are greater in the case of joint ventures than in non-equity alliances. Given that the hierarchical controls built into joint ventures may be offsetting many of the transaction and coordination costs inherent in joint venture activities, our results suggest that IT and SOA, through enhancement of flexibility, are likely to be reducing the costs of reconfiguration of firm resources. We test our hypotheses using data from 375 firms that are publicly listed in the United States and that span multiple industries; these firms have collectively engaged in more than 8,000 alliances over a period of 10 years.