Abstract
During the past decade, organizational theorists, business consultants, and telecommunications managers and vendors have directed our attention to the strategic role that information can play in the competitive strategy of firms (see, for example, Bradley, Hausman and Nolan, 1993; Keen, 1988; Porter and Millar 1985). Throughout the 1980s, widely discussed case examples demonstrated how the use of telecommunications networks to link firms to their suppliers and distribution chains conveyed important first mover advantages to such firms as American Hospital Supply and McKesson. The reported benefits to the firms deploying such interorganizational networks included: increased efficiency of order processing; reduced costs due to just-in-time inventory management; locking in trading partners because of the difficulties competitors faced once a network was in place; and greater ability to customize products and services based upon information arising from the transactions carried by the network (Cash and Konsynski, 1985; Johnson and Vitale, 1988).
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Steinfield, C., Kraut, R., Chan, A. (1998). The Impact of Interorganizational Networks on Buyer-Seller Relationships. In: Romm, C.T., Sudweeks, F. (eds) Doing Business Electronically. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0591-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0591-6_2
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