| With the explosive growth of Internet use in the past decade, inter-organizational communication over the Internet has become attractive to an increasing number of companies. A variety of Internet technologies, ranging from simple communication applications, like e-mail, to more advanced tools, like the Internet-based inter-organizational systems (IOS), have been adopted by numerous companies for meeting their inter-firm communication needs. Thus, these Internet communication tools have already become important alternatives to traditional communication media, such as telephone, fax, and mail.; Although much research has examined inter-organizational communication flows in the context of a traditional communication environment (e.g., Mohr and Nevin, 1990; Mohr and Sohi, 1995), very few studies have specifically addressed inter-organizational Internet communication activities. The lack of theoretical and empirical studies in this field makes it difficult for managers to determine how their resources and efforts should be best allocated for achieving high quality inter-organizational communication and enhancing cooperation with their business partners.; This study intends to expand the body of knowledge relating to the decision theory, particularly in terms of the antecedents and consequences of adopting and implementing inter-organizational Internet communication and related decision making processes. The author first identified the following three key dimensions of Internet communication behaviors based on the relevant literature review: frequency, diversity, and formality. Then, the author conducted a series of one-to-one telephone interviews. Finally, the author collected data from 284 Chinese manufacturing firms and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling technique. The results of both interviews and structural equation model test revealed that the frequency and diversity of Internet communication played an important role in determining the level of purchasing performance, while formality was critical to managing information flows over the Internet and preventing potential Internet information security risks. Further, this study found that two factors, such as perceived Internet security risks and norms of Internet information sharing, significantly influenced Internet communication behaviors. |
