Dissertation Abstract

ALLIANCES AS A VEHICLE FOR E-BUSINESS ENABLEMENT:
A STUDY OF THE ANTECEDENTS OF E-BUSINESS ALLIANCES

Darrin Thomas
Department of Information and Decision Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois (2006)

Dissertation Chairperson: Dr. Ranganathan Chandrasekaran

Since the commercialization of the World Wide Web, web technologies and the Internet have allowed companies to perform digital business operations more efficiently and effectively than ever before. However, e-Business enablement, i.e., the process of transition from a traditional brick-and-mortar organization to a digital brick-and-click firm, has been a daunting task for several firms as it requires specific skills, capital, information, technology, access to markets, and core resources that many firms lack. Many firms have turned to external mechanisms, such as alliances, for building these resources and capabilities.

The present study examined 1) the key antecedents of an e-Business alliance formation and 2) sought to understand why firms choose a specific alliance governance structure over other alternatives when participating in an e-Business alliance. We focused on four governance structures: unilateral contractual, bilateral contractual, minority equity and joint venture alliance forms. We found that EBRC (e-Business resources and capabilities) complementarity, resource and business relatedness, mimicking of alliance form and industry, and the three uncertainty measures of firm, partner and environmental uncertainty all appear to have an impact on the alliance form used, with those listed first having the greatest effect. Through cluster analyses, we were able to derive a scenario of when firms would pursue a particular alliance form given all alliance antecedents.

And you are?

A while ago I commented on zabasearch.com, a people search engine. Now, in the apparent quest for data transparency for all Americans, you can look up how much your neighbor paid for their house at realestateabc.com or zillow.com. Not enough information for you? Find out how your neighbors voted at fundrace.org. Or if they are registered sex offenders.

This is a good thing, right?

Tori in the City

Tonight we saw Tori Amos in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park, the new park in Chicago's front yard. It was a gorgeous venue with perfect acoustics. We were on the lawn, and the audio was just loud enough to drown out folks talking, but not so loud it hurt your ears. Tori was great, and was even complemented by fireworks which I assume were shot off at Navy Pier.

It is times like this when I think I could live in this city long term: it was a beautiful night, even complete with a few stars pushing through the city lights, in a wonderful venue, listening to an amazing artist with my lovely wife. I can think of few better ways to spend an evening.

Ticketmaster Exerts Monopoly Power

Laura and I are going to see Tori Amos on Wednesday! Alas, this means I had to give money to a company that I hate, Ticketmaster. Here is the breakdown:

Lawn Tickets: $10.00 x 2 tickets
Convenience Charge: $3.80 x 2 tickets
Order Processing Charge: $4.80
Will Call: No Charge (wow, thanks)
Taxes: $0.62
Total: $33.02

In total, Ticketmaster charges represent a 62% bump in the price of each ticket. The price of the tickets went from $10 to $16.20 each, before taxes, after Ticketmaster added its (monopoly-priced) "service" charges.

When Ticketmaster wants 10 times what the government wants, you know something is SERIOUSLY wrong.

Tell Me Again, What is a Blog Good For?

I can't seem to bring myself to post to this blog right now because I am supposed to be doing other things, most notably, finishing my dissertation revisions, finding a job so we can eat, and playing tennis. Okay, the latter is probably not critical, but when given the option between farting around online and exercising, I have to go with the latter, at least until I rid myself of this spare tire I am trucking around.

There are plenty of things I could comment on, like how cool our new apartment is, how nice it is to have friends nearby, or how I just saved a bunch of money on our car insurance (serious). But again, I should be working. Besides, when the going gets rough, I am not a journal-keeping sorta guy. I have endless streams of thought going through my mind about the minutiae of everyday life and even some about the overarching human condition, but to commit them all to zeros and ones seems so tedious, both for the writer and the reader. I think I'd rather just impart the occasional misadventure ala Josh and spare the world my thoughts on the best vegan cheese I just purchased.

Sure, it is cool to propagate information about random stuff, but ultimately isn't it all just so random that it doesn't mean anything? News houses have recently started citing blogs as sources for trivia answers or comments on current events, a trend I think just perpetuates the dumbing down of the network news. We can't treat the average Joe with access to a computer as a source of anything unless that person can provide reasonable credentials. I can comment on the best vegetarian dining in Chicago, but what is that really worth in the abstract? News sources and blog consolidators treat me as a valid source, when in reality my information is worthless until you know that I am a five-year vegetarian who has sampled a fair amount of the vegetarian fare in Chicago.

I guess what I am getting at is we are entering an era where technology has made it infinitely easy to propagate your opinions on just about anything to just about everyone with a web connection, but this freedom of information and transparency of information does not a valid source make. Without some way of providing and validating credentials, what we have is a large room where everyone is shouting their opinions and nobody is listening, at least not to the most appropriate party. As such, there continues to exist a value in the media in that they provide a validated collection of scholars who's opinions are actually worth more than a grain of salt. Well, except maybe television outlets who seem hung up on celebrity indiscretions more than quality news.

I have to ask myself, do I just want to be another voice shouting on the web? If I really want to provide worthwhile content to this Internet project we've undertaken, I should just hold off and work on building my expertise on specific topics. Then, at a later point, I can become a contributing author to a media outlet, popular website, or website of my own making where I espouse my expert opinion, backed up by my referenced credentials. Ask me about MIS topics, the vegetarian lifestyle, Moby, being a graduate student, or places I've lived in the past. This I can provide you my valid opinion on. But my comment on how Fla-vor-ice *Lite* Pops (an analog to Otter Pops for you Westerners) are absolutely terrible thanks to their lack of sugar is, alas, just one more opinion for the pot. Maybe it's worthwhile in the composite, but on this little blog, from a guy who eats maybe five frozen juice pops in an average year, it is just another opinion versus a well-substantiated fact (trust me though, they are TERRIBLE).

Dissertation Abstract

ALLIANCES AS A VEHICLE FOR E-BUSINESS ENABLEMENT:
A STUDY OF THE ANTECEDENTS OF E-BUSINESS ALLIANCES

Darrin Thomas
Department of Information and Decision Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois (2006)

Dissertation Chairperson: Dr. Ranganathan Chandrasekaran

Since the commercialization of the World Wide Web, web technologies and the Internet have allowed companies to perform digital business operations more efficiently and effectively than ever before. However, e-Business enablement, i.e., the process of transition from a traditional brick-and-mortar organization to a digital brick-and-click firm, has been a daunting task for several firms as it requires specific skills, capital, information, technology, access to markets, and core resources that many firms lack. Many firms have turned to external mechanisms, such as alliances, for building these resources and capabilities.

The present study examined 1) the key antecedents of an e-Business alliance formation and 2) sought to understand why firms choose a specific alliance governance structure over other alternatives when participating in an e-Business alliance. We focused on four governance structures: unilateral contractual, bilateral contractual, minority equity and joint venture alliance forms. We found that EBRC (e-Business resources and capabilities) complementarity, resource and business relatedness, mimicking of alliance form and industry, and the three uncertainty measures of firm, partner and environmental uncertainty all appear to have an impact on the alliance form used, with those listed first having the greatest effect. Through cluster analyses, we were able to derive a scenario of when firms would pursue a particular alliance form given all alliance antecedents.

And you are?

A while ago I commented on zabasearch.com, a people search engine. Now, in the apparent quest for data transparency for all Americans, you can look up how much your neighbor paid for their house at realestateabc.com or zillow.com. Not enough information for you? Find out how your neighbors voted at fundrace.org. Or if they are registered sex offenders.

This is a good thing, right?

Tori in the City

Tonight we saw Tori Amos in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park, the new park in Chicago's front yard. It was a gorgeous venue with perfect acoustics. We were on the lawn, and the audio was just loud enough to drown out folks talking, but not so loud it hurt your ears. Tori was great, and was even complemented by fireworks which I assume were shot off at Navy Pier.

It is times like this when I think I could live in this city long term: it was a beautiful night, even complete with a few stars pushing through the city lights, in a wonderful venue, listening to an amazing artist with my lovely wife. I can think of few better ways to spend an evening.

Ticketmaster Exerts Monopoly Power

Laura and I are going to see Tori Amos on Wednesday! Alas, this means I had to give money to a company that I hate, Ticketmaster. Here is the breakdown:

Lawn Tickets: $10.00 x 2 tickets
Convenience Charge: $3.80 x 2 tickets
Order Processing Charge: $4.80
Will Call: No Charge (wow, thanks)
Taxes: $0.62
Total: $33.02

In total, Ticketmaster charges represent a 62% bump in the price of each ticket. The price of the tickets went from $10 to $16.20 each, before taxes, after Ticketmaster added its (monopoly-priced) "service" charges.

When Ticketmaster wants 10 times what the government wants, you know something is SERIOUSLY wrong.

Tell Me Again, What is a Blog Good For?

I can't seem to bring myself to post to this blog right now because I am supposed to be doing other things, most notably, finishing my dissertation revisions, finding a job so we can eat, and playing tennis. Okay, the latter is probably not critical, but when given the option between farting around online and exercising, I have to go with the latter, at least until I rid myself of this spare tire I am trucking around.

There are plenty of things I could comment on, like how cool our new apartment is, how nice it is to have friends nearby, or how I just saved a bunch of money on our car insurance (serious). But again, I should be working. Besides, when the going gets rough, I am not a journal-keeping sorta guy. I have endless streams of thought going through my mind about the minutiae of everyday life and even some about the overarching human condition, but to commit them all to zeros and ones seems so tedious, both for the writer and the reader. I think I'd rather just impart the occasional misadventure ala Josh and spare the world my thoughts on the best vegan cheese I just purchased.

Sure, it is cool to propagate information about random stuff, but ultimately isn't it all just so random that it doesn't mean anything? News houses have recently started citing blogs as sources for trivia answers or comments on current events, a trend I think just perpetuates the dumbing down of the network news. We can't treat the average Joe with access to a computer as a source of anything unless that person can provide reasonable credentials. I can comment on the best vegetarian dining in Chicago, but what is that really worth in the abstract? News sources and blog consolidators treat me as a valid source, when in reality my information is worthless until you know that I am a five-year vegetarian who has sampled a fair amount of the vegetarian fare in Chicago.

I guess what I am getting at is we are entering an era where technology has made it infinitely easy to propagate your opinions on just about anything to just about everyone with a web connection, but this freedom of information and transparency of information does not a valid source make. Without some way of providing and validating credentials, what we have is a large room where everyone is shouting their opinions and nobody is listening, at least not to the most appropriate party. As such, there continues to exist a value in the media in that they provide a validated collection of scholars who's opinions are actually worth more than a grain of salt. Well, except maybe television outlets who seem hung up on celebrity indiscretions more than quality news.

I have to ask myself, do I just want to be another voice shouting on the web? If I really want to provide worthwhile content to this Internet project we've undertaken, I should just hold off and work on building my expertise on specific topics. Then, at a later point, I can become a contributing author to a media outlet, popular website, or website of my own making where I espouse my expert opinion, backed up by my referenced credentials. Ask me about MIS topics, the vegetarian lifestyle, Moby, being a graduate student, or places I've lived in the past. This I can provide you my valid opinion on. But my comment on how Fla-vor-ice *Lite* Pops (an analog to Otter Pops for you Westerners) are absolutely terrible thanks to their lack of sugar is, alas, just one more opinion for the pot. Maybe it's worthwhile in the composite, but on this little blog, from a guy who eats maybe five frozen juice pops in an average year, it is just another opinion versus a well-substantiated fact (trust me though, they are TERRIBLE).