The Empirical Study On Inter-Organizational Information System On Relational Governance And Its Performance

With the development of supply chain and information technology, competition and cooperation have become the strategic choices of enterprise sustainable survival and development, and relational governance has become more important. Manufacturer and supplier Take joint action to meet the problems of special investment, environmental dynamics, and resource dependence, so effectively improve relational performance, hence it is of theoretical and practical significance to research on interfirm relational governance. In the paper, the nature of interorganizational system(IOS) are analysized, the characteristics of IOS are generalized, the influence factors to interorganizational relationship governance is identified from several theory views, and the general framework for analysizing the effect of IOS on relational governance and its performance is drawn. Based on joint action between manufacturer and supplier, the research is mainly focused on three aspects: first, the effect of IOS characteristic on joint action; direct and indirect influence of factors such as special investment, trust, environmental dynamics, and resource dependence on joint action; the mediation role of IOS on performance through joint action. The variables are measured against measurement standards, and by applying the data collected from 281 effective interviews, the theory model is empirical verified in both aspects of the dynamic process of joint action: joint planning and joint problem solving.The conclusion and major theoretic innovation of this research may be listed as following:(1) The theory model of the effect of IOS on the joint action between manufacture and supplier is constructed on the base of the effect of communication and information technology on interfirm relationship, and the development of relational governance in supply chain. The model comprises the traditional IOS characteristics such as formality, centrality, information exchange and information exchange quality, and the new IOS Intelligent characteristics such as system integration, system decision support, and system alarm, which make IOS research more further. The intelligent IOS can make up for the shortcomings of traditional IOS characteristics. The empirical result shows that some IOS characteristics have significant effect on joint action. In the aspect of relational governance in supply chain, joint action between manufacture and supply is used, which emphasizes the dynamic process: prior joint planning and post joint problem solving, and the research highlights the different role of IOS characteristics in different stages of relational governance. (2) With the support of information technology, special investment, trust, environmental dynamics, and resource dependence are all important influence factors to interfirm relatiaonship, the theory model of direct and indirect influence of these factors to relational governance during enterprise informatization. The model emphasizes different role of these factors in different stage of joint action, and make further research on relational governance in support of information technology. The empirical result verifies the special relationship between environmental dynamic and joint problem solving: when trust between manufacturer and supplier is high, relationship between environmental dynamic and joint problem solving shows positive, in other words, trust is low, the relationship shows negative. Further, the research verifies the reverse "U" relation between resource dependence and joint problem solving: when the dependence is very low or very high, the relational governance will not be used.(3) In the aspect of information technology(IT) can improve performance, the research regards relational governance as an effective tool, and proposes the model of 'IOS- relational governance - performance'. The model regards relational governance as mediation variable when enterprises adopt IOS to improve performance, which can overcome the dualistic structure of IT's functions, and outstand the strategic role of relational governance during enterprise informatization. The empirical result verifies the mediation role of joint problem solving during enterprise informatization: IOS can improve relational performance through joint problem solving.