No abstract

Interorganizational information systems (IOISs) have become the core platform of today's digital economy. Despite their increasing importance, little is known about how they have emerged, evolved into their current operational form, and coevolved with social institutions that develop, regulate, use, and maintain them. Why certain IOIS features and functions are selected for implementation while others are not; and once implemented, why some features and functions remain in existence while others disappear have yet to be explained. Departing from the current research paradigm on IOIS emergence and evolution that focuses mainly at the macro level, we conceptualize IOIS as complex adaptive systems and look at the smallest elements that constitute their existence, i.e., memes or information, knowledge, and ideas that fuel their implementation and dictate their features and functions. We propose a memetic theory of IS emergence and evolution, and operationalize our theory with four propositions. A 17-year longitudinal case study is used to illustrate our meme-centered view of emergence and evolution.

In spite of the increasing need for building interagency systems, the literature on effective inter-organizational collaboration is practically inexistent, both from the methodological and practical perspectives. Using an action research approach, this paper reports the findings of a four-year long action research that seeks to identify critical success factors for establishing and maintaining interagency collaboration in a large-scale inter-organizational system development project. The findings were drawn from direct experiences during the implementation of the cross-border internet-based system for trade and transport facilitation in Thailand, which required an involvement of more than 40 governmental and business stakeholders. This paper suggests a stepwise approach for the establishment and maintenance of interagency collaboration, and derives methodological and practical implications from this large-scale experience.

Due to globalization, the emergence and evolution of Interorganizational Information Systems (IOIS) has increasingly gained interest among researchers and practitioners. Yet, the extant literature in organizational theory and IS does not provide much insight on why a particular IOIS project has been selected for implementation over the others or why some variations of a particular IOIS have been adopted whereas others were not. Taking into account the complex interaction between IOIS and the various social institutions and communities of practice that are involved in IOIS development, use, and regulation, we propose a theoretical approach and a set of propositions to help understand the emergence and evolution of IOIS. We conceptualize IOIS as a ComplexAdaptive System (CAS) residing in an organizational field and ideas and concepts that lead to the creation of an IOIS and its components as memes. Our IOIS theory of emergence and evolution is inspired by two complementary evolutionary perspectives from Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.

In spite of the increasing need for building interagency systems, the literature on effective inter-organizational collaboration is practically inexistent, both from the methodological and practical perspectives. Using an action research approach, this paper reports the findings of a four-year long action research that seeks to identify critical success factors for establishing and maintaining interagency collaboration in a large-scale inter-organizational system development project. The findings were drawn from direct experiences during the implementation of the cross-border internet-based system for trade and transport facilitation in Thailand, which required an involvement of more than 40 governmental and business stakeholders. This paper suggests a stepwise approach for the establishment and maintenance of interagency collaboration, and derives methodological and practical implications from this large-scale experience.