Network effects on inter-organisational coordination

Abstract

Coordination has been seen as the act of managing dependencies between activities. From this concept emerged the theory of coordination, which is the combination of various theories such as organisational theory, transaction cost theory, computer science, psychology and various others combined to develop a better understanding of the problem of coordination. It is not a unique theory, but rather a mixture of theories from various disciplines. However, coordination theory can be conceptualised as a body of principles about how the activities of separate actors can be coordinated. Also from coordination, emerges inter-organisational coordination, which involves coordination between organisations. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of social networks (i.e. social ties) and ICT use for coordination. By applying the strengths of strong and weak ties theory and components of coordination to inter-organisational coordination, we present the effects of social networks and ICT use on inter-organisational coordination. © 2006 IEEE.