eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The thesis focuses on identifying the effects of two different trust types: competence-based trust and openness-based trust on the asset specificity three different interorganizational system resources: human knowledge, business processes and infrastructure. In addition, the effects of human knowledge and business process resources on switching costs will be examined.

RESEARCH MODEL For constructing the framework, recent theories on information sharing in supply chain relationships and information sharing standards were used as a cornerstone. Electronic invoicing processes and standards were also considered in order to make it practically applicable.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The empirical section includes multiple case studies of buyer-seller relationships. In the study, a qualitative research method of multiple case studies was utilized. The data was gathered from four different case companies in semi structured interviews as well as observing processes. Interviews were later transcribed for the analysis of results.

MAIN FINDINGS The main findings of the thesis indicate that trust in general does not have an effect on business process resources. On the other hand it has a varying effect on human knowledge resources, but no effect on system infrastructure. Finally, because the effects of trust on the above resources was opposite to what the literature suggests, a generalization on switching costs can only be made that they exist to an intermediate level as well.

KEYWORDS Interorganizational systems, trust, switching costs, information sharing