The impacts of competence-trust and openness-trust on interorganizational systems

Abstract

Trust can have imperative influences on the use of interorganizational systems (IOSs). Management, sociology and psychology literature distinguish different types of trust and attribute distinctive impacts to these types. However, little is known regarding the influences of different types of trust on IOSs usage. This paper focuses on how trust based on partner competence and trust based on partner openness influence the use of IOS-related resources. Hypotheses are constructed relying on the use of the resource-based view and transaction-cost economics to analyse influences on relationship specificity of four types of IOS-related resources: business processes, human knowledge, organizational domain knowledge and IOS infrastructure. Three case studies are conducted on interorganizational relationships employing IOSs. Competence-trust is found to positively influence the use of human-knowledge resources, resources related to interlinkage of business processes and organizational domain knowledge resources. Openness-trust is found to positively influence use of human-knowledge resources and organizational domain-knowledge resources.

Keywords:

• interorganizational trust
• interorganizational systems
• resource-based theory
• IT resources

Notes

1 Fictitious firm names are used for all relationships.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohammed Ibrahim

About the authors

Mohammed Ibrahim received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Information Management from CentER, Center of Economic Research, at Tilburg University. He became an assistant professor at the Rotterdam School of Management in 2006 before assuming his current position as an architect of SOA-enabled enterprise systems in 2009. His current work and research interests focus on service-oriented architecture, interorganizational systems, trust and social psychology.

Pieter M Ribbers

Pieter M. Ribbers is Professor of Information Management at Tilburg University. He is the chair of the Department of Information Systems and Management and Academic Director of Master of Information Management program of TiasNimbas Business School. From 1991 till 1995 he held a position as Affiliated Professor in Information Management at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. He is guest Professor at the University of Hasselt (Belgium). His interests span management of information technology (in particular questions related to alignment and information economics), Interorganizational Systems (in particular E-Business), and the strategic and organizational consequences of the use of Information Technology. His most recent books are ‘e-Business: Organizational and Technical Foundations’, co-authored with Mike Papazoglou (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2006), and ‘Managing IT Outsourcing’, co-authored with Eric Beulen and Jan Roos (Routledge, 2006). He is a member of the editorial board of Information and Management – The International Journal of Information Systems Applications.