University in Washington, DC. Professor DeLone’s primary areas of research include the assessment of information systems effectiveness and value, the implementation and use of information technology in small and medium-sized businesses, and the global management of information technology. He has been published in various

Despite the importance to researchers, managers, and policy makers of how information technology (IT) contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty and debate about what we know and don’t know. A review of the literature reveals that studies examining the association between information technology and organizational performance are divergent in how they conceptualize key constructs and their interrelationships. We develop a model of IT business value based on the resource-based view of the firm that integrates the various strands of research into a single framework. We apply the integrative model to synthesize what is known about IT business value and guide future research by developing propositions and suggesting a research agenda. A principal finding is that IT is valuable, but the extent and dimensions are dependent upon internal and external factors, including complementary organizational resources of the firm and its trading partners, as well as the competitive and macro environment. Our analysis provides a blueprint to guide future research and facilitate knowledge accumulation and creation concerning the organizational performance impacts of information technology.

A great deal of controversy exists about the impact of information technology on firm performance. While some authors have reported positive impacts, others have found negative or no impacts. This study focuses on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology. Many of the problems in this line of research are overcome in this study by conducting a careful analysis of the performance data of the past decade gathered from the assembly centers of Chrysler Corporation. This study estimates the dollar benefits of improved information exchanges between Chrysler and its suppliers that result from using EDI. After controlling for variations in operational complexity arising from mix, volume, parts complexity, model, and engineering changes, the savings per vehicle that result from improved information exchanges are estimated to be about $60. Including the additional savings from electronic document preparation and transmission, the total benefits of EDI per vehicle amount to over $100. System wide, this translates to annual savings of $220 million for the company.

In interorganizational settings the use of information systems (IS) and networks is often not evaluated in a formal way and decisions are made by "gut feeling" rather than based on rational evidence. Since benefits depend not only on internal contingencies but also on the decisions and loyalty of business partners, issues of trust and the risk of becoming locked in with a disloyal partner become crucial. The Internet and Web-based technologies facilitate system development and the deployment of interorganizational systems (IOS) and may thus help change this picture. In times where IT use is becoming more and more important for the firm to stay competitive and efficient, system costs and benefits have to be carefully balanced in order to build systems that are perceived as being beneficial even in cases where risk-aversion makes this a difficult task. This paper examines applications that support inter-firm business transactions, in particular those that involve buying processes. We int...

The central premise of this paper is that collaboration, and more specifically e-collaboration, plays a major role in achieving a sustainable competitive edge. In particular, we propose here to examine the relative efficiency of electronic collaboration (e-collaboration) tools and to assess the impacts of these tools on the innovativeness and performance of individual firms positioned along an industry-specific single supply chain. Empirical data from both the upstream and downstream perspectives for firms positioned at different points of one supply chain suggest that e-collaboration and its impacts create a one-sided benefit for the upstream side of the supply chain: first, the overall relative efficiency of e-collaboration tools is higher and, second, the impacts of e-collaboration are more beneficial when used with suppliers than when used with customers. The results also point to a stage model for implementing collaboration tools in a supply chain: the level of efficiency is higher for e-collaboration tools that support more operational than strategic activities (procurement vs. capacity planning). Finally, this research suggests strongly that collaboration tools can have significant impacts on the supply chain and that these tools need to be implemented progressively, both upstream and downstream, thereby yielding different and, most probably, cumulative benefits over time.

Broadly, telemedicine refers to the use of information and telecommunication technologies to distribute information and/or expertise necessary for healthcare service provision, collaboration and/or delivery among geographically separated participants, including physicians and patients. Evaluation of telemedicine systems success or effectiveness is a fundamental challenge to healthcare organizations. A review of previous telemedicine research suggests a focused evaluation approach, thus offering limited discussion of comprehensive views of systems success or systematic and practical guidance to its evaluations. Based on a prevalent information systems success model, this paper proposes and describes a revised model for evaluating telemedicine systems success in clinical and organizational settings. Plausible applications of the proposed model are illustrated using teleradiology as an example. In addition, several future research directions that extend the reported study are also highlighted.

Firms are integrating segmented supply chains to improve global resource coordination and reduce buffers, such as lead times and inventory levels. Yet, supply chain integration, if inappropriately conceptualized, can have a detrimental impact on market responsiveness and value generation capability. Transformational innovations in Internet technologies, e-business models, such as consortia-sponsored e-markets, and industry process standards, such as RosettaNet, are challenging assumptions of value creation and appropriation. As a consequence, firms and supply chain sets need to reevaluate supply chain processes and enabling digital capabilities. Five supply chain configurations, i.e., integrated firm, fragmented chains, end-to-end integration, modular chains, and solution webs, are profiled. Assumptions and capabilities associated with each configuration are discussed. Key transformation issues in moving from one configuration to another are evaluated. Some directions for future research are offered. Keywords: supply chain configuration, e-coordination, supply chain transformation,

This paper develops a theory about the relationship between the motivation to implement an interorganizational system and the types of activities likely to be performed in that implementation project. To illustrate this relationship, we describe three EDI implementation projects performed by two companies within the Australian automotive industry. Each project is motivated by different business requirements (survival, incremental process improvement, and process transformation), and each is associated with a different set of subsequent project activities. Our analysis shows that the pattern of activities observed in each case corresponds exactly to the pattern predicted using established theory. On this basis, we assert that motivation not only influenced the range of activities conducted, it also played a role in determining the activities not conducted. We then assess the likely long-term consequences of each organization’s activity pattern, noting that although the activities conducted are a defensible response to the competitive requirements perceived by managers, each motivationbased pattern also brings with it a number of potential risks (and opportunities) that will need to be managed carefully.

During the last years, a consensus is emerging that to survive in the competitive turbulence that is engulfing a growing number of industries, firms will need to pinpoint innovative practices rapidly, to communicate them to their suppliers and to stimulate further innovation. In order to be competitive, companies are forced to adopt less hierarchical and more flexible structures, and to define strategies able to combine reduced costs, high quality, flexibility and a quick answer to customer requirements. Nowadays, there are very few companies with enough resources to form its value chain on their own. Therefore, some changes are taking place within individual companies and in their relations with other organizations, creating new structures in which relationships between customers and suppliers are suffering considerable changes. One of these changes is concerned with the formation of networks in which there is a division of labour that allows each company to exploit their distinctive advantages, and be more competitive globally. In a network model, a set of juridically independent companies establish cooperative long term links in order to achieve a higher level of competitiveness. The enterprises that belong to a network have not all the elements needed for manufacturing a product or providing a service under their absolute control. Therefore, the success of this kind of structures is conditioned by the coordination degree obtained along the realization of inter-organizational activities, which requires an efficient communication system among the partners. The Information Technology (IT) represents a supportive element that facilitates the transfer of information across organizational boundaries. In this paper we analyze the inclusion of the Interorganizational Information Systems (IOS) concept within the network model and discuss the role IT plays in enabling organizational transformation towards emergent forms of organization.

Vertical IS standards prescribe data structures and definitions, document formats, and business processes for particular industries, in contrast to generic IT standards, which concern IT characteristics applicable to many industries. This paper explores the potential industry structure effects of vertical IS standards through a case study of the United States home mortgage industry. We review theoretical arguments about the potential industry structure effects of standards for interorganizational coordination, and we compare the characteristics of XML-based vertical IS standards with those of EDI to gauge the applicability of prior literature. We argue that the lower costs and wider accessibility of XML-based standards that use the Internet can result in significant changes to the structure of the mortgage industry. However, the nature of industry change will depend on the specific ways in which standards are implemented by firms in the industry—there are many patterns of implementation with potentially different effects at