This paper revisits the ”move to the market” hypothesis proposed by Malone et al. (1987) and argues that, although compatible with empirical results, the theoretical basis of this hypothesis is flawed since no clear distinction is made between coordination mechanisms and forms of governance....

In this paper, we raise the issue of the appropriate unit of analysis for e-commerce studies. Once it is acknowledged that the unit of analysis in e-commerce studies should comprise more than one firm, the question is, which organizations should be included, i.e. how to bound the unit? We...

This paper proposes that the lack of a theoretical framework able to address policy issues on the firm as well as the industry level in an integrated manner contributes to a failure of developing effective e-commerce policies. Specifically, theoretical approaches fall into the two broad...

In this paper we develop a transaction cost perspective of the computer industry evolution and standardization processes in order to evaluate the future of the open source software (OSS) movement, particularly with regard to how the involvement of firms -- as opposed to individuals -- will shape...

In this paper, we describe the introduction of electronic commerce into the drug distribution industry in China. This case is especially interesting because massive institutional changes coincide with the introduction of a new technology. For these reasons, it becomes possible to study the...

Purpose – This paper reflects on the evolution of China's drug distribution industry from the planned economy era to the most recent dramatic shift, with a major focus on the analysis of the government's efforts of centralizing the drug distribution channel through adoption of e‐bidding...

We argue that certain theoretical commitments that underpin much existing Inter-organisational Information Systems (IOIS) research at small scales become untenable when IOIS are studied at the scale of whole industries and over time periods greater than individual implementation projects. We...

As part of an international empirical study we have developed a high-level theory of the structure and evolution of inter-organizational information systems (IOIS), but face two issues in testing this theory; the very large set of factors possibly influencing IOIS and need to bound a complex...

Based on a critical analysis of the literature on the development and adoption of inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) we propose a new unit of analysis for IOIS studies, define levels of analysis based on this unit in order to organize a large set of variables pertinent to the study...