Considerable interest has developed regarding the role of electronic communication, and particularly computer networks, in supporting inter-organizational partnerships (i.e., customer-vendor partnerships and alliances between strategic partners). For example, researchers have focused on the strategic advantage of Electronic Date Interchange (e.g., Benjamin, de Long, & Morton, 1990; Venkatatraman & Zaheer, 1990) and t he conditions for its successful use (O'Callaghan, Kaufmann, & Konsynski, 1992). A great deal of interest has also developed regarding concepts such as "flexible corporations," "agile corporations," "virtual organizations" (Miles and Snow, 1986; Powell, 1987) and "electronic hierarchies" (Malone et al., 1987). Descriptions of these organizational forms frequently refer to the role that computer networks play in reducing the time required to exchange information between firms, in improving inter organizational coordination, in shortening product development cycle time, and in increasing the flexibility with which firms reselect strategic partners. This paper focuses on the organizational and technical adjustments and investments that firms make in order to use inter organizational computer networks effectively.
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