Empirical Evidence on How Information Technology Encourages the Creation of Strategic Networks

Abstract

This chapter analyzes how information technology fosters and supports the creation of strategic networks. First, we shall establish an eclectic theoretical framework that can appropriately explain the reasons why firms form strategic networks. We base our analysis on the theories of transaction cost economics and the resource-based view. Second, we shall analyze, from this theoretical perspective, how information technology can affect the factors of value and cost that influence the formation of strategic networks. Finally, we shall empirically test if theory predictions actually occur in practice, by studying the role that information technology has played in the formation of a network by a Spanish firm.