We propose a new theoretical framework for understanding simultaneous trust and distrust within relationships. grounded in assumptions of multidimensionality and the inherent tensions of relationships. and we separate this research from prior work grounded in assumptions of unidimensionality and balance. Drawing foundational support for this new framework from recent research on simultaneous positive and negative sentiments and ambivalence. we explore the theoretical and practical significance of the framework for future work on trust and distrust relationships within organizations.

Organizations are changing at an ever-faster pace, as they try to keep up with globalization and the information revolution. Unfortunately, information systems technologies do not support system evolution well, making information systems a roadblock to organizational change. We propose to view information systems as social structures and define methodologies which develop and evolve seamlessly an information system within its operational environment. To this end, this paper proposes an ontology for information systems that is inspired by social and organizational structures. The ontology adopts components of the i* organizational modeling framework, which is founded on the notions of actor, goal and social dependency. Social patterns, drawn from research on cooperative and distributed architectures, offer a more macroscopic level of social structure description. Finally, the proposed ontology includes organizational styles inspired from organization theory. These are used not only to model the overall organizational context of an information system, but also its architecture. Social patterns and organizational styles are defined in terms of configurations of i* concepts. The research has been conducted in the context of the Tropos project.

Information systems for organizations such as e-business and knowledge management systems must continually evolve to adapt to their operational environment. Unfortunately, current development methodologies do not support system evolution well, making software an obstacle to organizational changes. The paper describes a framework that develops and evolves seamlessly a systemto -be within its organizational environment. We adopt a set of social structures - organizational styles and social patterns - based on concepts of organization theory and agent approaches, as a foundation to model early and late requirements as well as architectural and detailed design. We illustrate the use of the social structures through a case study, and we speci one of the styles in the Formal Tropos language. This research has been conducted within the context of the Tropos project.

Interfirm collaboration among knowledge intensive firms is increasing as a result of accelerating competition, falling regulatory barriers, and rising customer expectations. Resource dependency theory is used to position knowledge as the key resource for the knowledge-based enterprise (KBE) and to examine the suitability of alliances as a mode of knowledge acquisition and exchange, contrasted particularly with merger and acquisition. The alliance and knowledge literatures are reviewed and particular attention is paid to the critical alliance formation stage. This stage is reviewed against a research model that posits firm performance in knowledge creation arises from a number of factors, including the motivation for an alliance, partner firm characteristics (the ability to develop and sustain valuable resources; absorptive capacity; combinative capability; experience with alliances; and appropriate design for knowledge exchange), the development of operating structures and norms, and the choice of alliance structure. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

We propose a collection of architectural styles for multi-agent systems motivated by organizational theory and enterprise organization structures. One of the styles is discussed in detail and part of it is formalized using the Formal Tropos specification language. In addition, we conduct a comparative study of organizational and conventional software architectures using a mobile robot control example from the Software Engineering literature.

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The long tail phenomenon has been heavily discussed in recent years. What has been neglected so far is its striking relevance for electronic services. Whereas consumers expectations about information goods are often vague and transient, their requirements are pronounced and specific when it comes to the functional and non-functional characteristics of electronic services. Moreover, modular services can be combined and configured into service mashups that meet virtually every conceivable consumer requirement. In this vein, the long tail phenomenon can be leveraged into a new dimension – the long valley, where every service exerts positive network externalities on the remaining services, thereby spurring an increase in supply and demand. The combinatorics of constructible service mashups are enabled by universally accessible service orchestration platforms known as Service Value Networks (SVNs). This article shall not only pave the way

This paper uses a resource-based perspective to present an initial examination of some of the roles played by strategic alliances in the business models of technology-based ventures whose origins are within the University of Cambridge. Analysis of 150 technology ventures (predominantly based around information technology, telecommunications and biotechnology) established over the period 1992-2002 by current and recent University of Cambridge students, faculty and researchers revealed that the majority of these have utilised strategic alliances of various forms as a core component of their business model. This presents an interesting issue for analysis: there is well established body of research showing that alliances are necessary to support innovative activities (e.g., Forrest, 1991; Granstrand et al., 1992; Osborn and Baughn, 1990). As the formation of new technology ventures represents one example of an innovative activity, it is unsurprising to find that alliances are commonly found as an integral component of the business models for such technology start-up companies. However, there is also a strong body of research showing that firms find strategic

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates the pooling of complementary capabilities in third countries by allied MNCs through an exploratory case study of collaboration between Ford and Mazda in two Southeast Asian countries. Findings revealed nine categories that seem to influence capability transfers by allied firms. A composite category termed ‘managerial participation ’ is used to build a general matrix of possible types of thirdcountry collaboration and the expected level of capability pooling that will occur in each type. The paper argues that repeated capability pooling in countries around the world could be a source of global competitive advantage for allied firms.

Both MIS and Business Strategy researchers in the past decade have examined IT and strategic alliances, a form of collaboration that is expected to remain vital in the future. This study is based on a comparative literature review of inter-organizational alliances where information technology use or information management practices were addressed. Treating the alliance context as a system, the analysis follows a content analysis strategy to systematically compare the MIS and Business Strategy literatures from 1990 to 2001. Significant opportunities are found to exist for MIS researchers to provide insight into the relationship between information technology and strategic alliances.