Integrated Information Systems and Alliance Partner Trust

• Published in: Contemporary accounting research Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 1018 - 1045
• Main Authors: NICOLAOU, ANDREAS I., SEDATOLE, KAREN L., LANKTON, NANCY K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2011; Canadian Academic Accounting Association
• Subjects: Alliances; Chief financial officers; Control theory; Empirical tests; Information sharing; Information systems; Integration theory; Partners; Public companies; Public enterprises; Public sector; Senior management; Studies; Survey data; Trust; U.S.A; United States > US
• ISSN: 0823-9150; 1911-3846
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1911-3846.2011.01077.x

This study examines the relation between technology-enabled information system integration (ISI), a mechanism for information sharing in an alliance, and partner trust in the context of how the system's information is used for control and coordination purposes. In this study, the authors develop and empirically test a model of the relation between ISI and trust that includes two types of managerial information use -- control and coordination as mediating variables. Using a survey of 116 CFO of US public companies involved in strategic alliances, they find that ISI inhibits trust only to the extent that the information from these systems is used for control purposes. Their study results in validating a more complete model of the effects of ISI and control systems choices on alliance partner trust, including what control systems choices must be made in light of both economic and psychological factors.