Indicators for the use of interorganizational systems and netowrking among companies in the automobile industry

Abstract

Business network is a subject which shows relevance in the academic literature in the last few years. Companies form networks when there is cooperation and commitment in the actual relationship between them. On the other hand, the use of information systems to connect companies – known as inter-organizational systems (IOS) – is increasing. The basic issue delt by this article is: can we say that companies in networks are those which use IOS in a more advanced way? To answer this question indicators need to be created which allow measuring the relationship intensity among companies in networks as well as the use of inter-organizational systems. This study offers a first proposal for the creation of those indicators and identification of their importance, based on literature analysis of the two constructs – company networks and inter-organizational systems. The 15 indicators created were submitted to the analysis of a Systems Manager who worked on the implementation of a recent inter-organizational system by one of the major car assemblers in Brazil, which connects the company to 470 suppliers. It is an exploratory study which revealed indicators “mutual dependency” and “product development agreements” as the most important for networks, and “integration depth” and “business process specificity” for IOS.