The Coordination of Inter-Organizational Networks in the Enterprise Software Industry

In the enterprise software industry, large platform vendors have established partner networks with smaller providers of complementary solutions. This study takes the perspective of these complementors. How do they coordinate their partnerships with platform vendors? What are the circumstances under which different coordination mechanisms lead to partnership success? Based on existing theories and the findings from extensive qualitative research, a new explanatory model is developed. The study contributes to theory building efforts in the Information Systems discipline as well as in adjacent fields by providing a better understanding of partnership coordination and success. The implications for successful partnership management are highly relevant for practitioners.

Autorentext

Thomas Kude was born in 1981. In 2007, he completed his studies of Information Systems at the University of Mannheim and the Corvinus University of Budapest. Between 2007 and 2011, he conducted the research that underlies this book at the University of Mannheim as a doctoral student and research assistant at the Chair of General Management and Information Systems. In 2009, the author was a visiting researcher at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Inhalt
Contents: Network structures in the enterprise software industry The coordination of inter-organizational partnerships Complementor organizations Qualitative research Resource and product-level complementarity Knowledge-sharing routines Opportunistic Behavior Partnership success.