CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 341Outsourcing and Supply Chain ManagementInformation Technology Governance and StrategyMerger and Competition Analysis

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 29 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Information Technology and Firm Boundaries: Evidence from Panel Data

Open access
Hitt, Lorin M.·1999·Information Systems Research
DOI 10.1287/isre.10.2.134
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Previous literature has suggested that information technology (IT) can affect firm boundaries by changing the costs of coordinating economic activity within and between firms (internal and external coordination). This paper examines the empirical relationship between IT and firm structure and evaluates whether this structure is consistent with prior arguments about IT and coordination. We formulate an empirical model to relate the use of information technology capital to vertical integration and diversification. This model is tested using an 8-year panel data set of information technology capital stock, firm structure, and relevant control variables for 549 large firms. Overall, increased use of IT is found to be associated with substantial decreases in vertical integration and weak increases in diversification. In addition, firms that are less vertically integrated and more diversified have a higher demand for IT capital. While we cannot rule out all alternative explanations for these results, they are consistent with previous theoretical arguments that both internal and external coordination costs are reduced by IT.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1287/isre.10.2.134

Cites

29 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 30 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 1995, Survey Current Bus., 75, 46
  2. Coase R. H., 1937, Economica, 396
  3. Drucker P. F., 1988, Harvard Bus. Rev., 45
  4. Holmstrom B., 1994, Amer. Econom. Rev., 84, 972
  5. Lawson A. M., 1994, Survey Current Bus., 74, 73
  6. Schapp J., 1998, New York Times
  7. Wernerfelt B., 1988, Amer. Econom. Rev., 78, 246
  8. Williamson O., 1975, Markets and Hierarchy: Analysis and Antitrust Implications

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 341

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Hitt, L. M.
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania (US)
Corresponding author
Hitt, Lorin M.
ORCID
Hitt, Lorin M.
Venue
Information Systems Research
Publisher
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Published
1999-06
Volume
10
Issue
2
Pages
134-149
ISSN
  • 1047-7047 (ISSN-L)
  • 1526-5536
DOI
10.1287/isre.10.2.134
OpenAlex
W1973836970
Cited by
341
References
30
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 16
FWCI
19.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Information Systems Research (publishedVersion)
  • ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Outsourcing and Supply Chain Management
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Information Technology Governance and Strategy
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Merger and Competition Analysis
Keywords
firm boundaries, vertical integration, diversification, corporate structure, large corporations

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review