Network relations and boundary spanning: understanding the evolution of e-ordering in the Chinese drug distribution industry
Network relations and boundary spanning: understanding the evolution of e-ordering in the Chinese drug distribution industry
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DOI：
10.1057/jit.2013.27
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发表时间：
2014-09
影响因子：
5.6
通讯作者：
Xunhua Guo;Kai Reimers;Bin Xie;Mingzhi Li
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Xunhua Guo;Kai Reimers;Bin Xie;Mingzhi Li
电子订货系统的应用给中国药品流通行业带来了重大变化，但这些变化的影响尚不清楚。本文采用实践视角，基于多种方法的纵向数据收集，揭示了我国药品流通实践经历了以下三个阶段：电子订货前阶段、政府试图实施集中平台的过渡阶段和当前的碎片化制度阶段。我们借鉴了网络关系模型的理论基础，以及Schultze和Orlikowski以及Levina和Vaast分别提出的边界跨越理论，为理解企业间网络实践制定了一个分类框架。应用这一框架来解释中国药品流通的长期变化，我们发现该领域的实践已经从传统的、社会嵌入的关系演变为基于信息系统的、社会嵌入的关系，而政府部署的集中平台无法建立一种公平的关系。我们的理论工作为研究明确包含组织间信息系统存在的企业间实践提供了一个综合框架。我们的实证研究结果为促进中国和其他类似背景下药品分销行业创新使用新型信息技术的集体努力提供了有益的实践见解。
The application of e-ordering systems has brought significant changes to the drug distribution industry in China, but the effects of these changes have remained unclear. Adopting a practice perspective and based on longitudinal data collection using multiple methods, we reveal that the Chinese drug distribution practice has passed through the following three stages: the stage before e-ordering, the transitional stage in which the government attempted to impose a centralised platform, and the current fragmented systems stage. We draw upon the theoretical foundations of the network relations model and the boundary spanning theory developed by Schultze and Orlikowski and Levina and Vaast, respectively, to formulate a taxonomic framework for understanding inter-firm network practices. Applying the framework to explain long-term changes in drug distribution in China, we discover that the practice in the field has evolved from traditional, socially embedded relations to information systems-based, socially embedded relations, while the centralised platform deployed by the government was unable to establish a practice with arm's length relations. Our theoretical work contributes an integrated framework for studying inter-firm practices that explicitly incorporates the presence of inter-organisational information systems. Our empirical findings offer helpful practical insights for facilitating collective efforts toward the innovative use of novel IT in the drug distribution industry in China and in other contexts that are similar.