Evaluating cross-organizational impacts of information technology – an empirical analysis

This paper documents information technology (IT) impacts that extend across organizational boundaries based on the economic theory. It evaluates how a firm's production cost is affected by the IT decisions of its business partners, over which it has no direct control. Using cross-sectional data on 100 audit engagements for the 100 largest continuing clients of a leading international public accounting firm's main office, it empirically evaluates the impact of the clients’ IT choices on their supplier's (the public accounting firm's) production costs, professional allocations and product prices. The results indicate, other things being equal, that the higher intensity or complexity a client's IT exhibits, the more effort public accounting professionals need to exert, thus, the higher the production cost incurred by the public accounting firm. In contrast, the better documentation or security a client's IT furnishes, the lower the cost the public accounting firm sustains. Furthermore, such differences in production cost are eventually passed on to the client via differences in product price.