IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ebg/heccah/1069.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Limits of Systems Integration: Complementarity, Contingencies, and Solution Design Choices

Author

Listed:
  • Masini , Andrea
  • Ceci , Federica

Abstract

Whereas systems integration is recognized as an important organizational capability, the mechanisms through which it creates value as well as the environmental contingencies that delimit its effectiveness remain unclear, particularly when firms deliver integrated solutions embodying products and services. Focusing on IT solution providers, the authors investigate the effectiveness of systems integration with respect to three specific approaches to solution design: breadth, modularity, and customization. They find a complementarity effect between systems integration and solution design approaches: if firms pursue customization or rely on a broad set of heterogeneous knowledge bases, systems integration becomes fundamental. Conversely, if firms adopt a modular design, systems integration is redundant and even counterproductive. The authors also find evidence of complementarity between breadth and customization, but not between breadth and modularity nor between customization and modularity.

Suggested Citation

  • Masini , Andrea & Ceci , Federica, 2014. "The Limits of Systems Integration: Complementarity, Contingencies, and Solution Design Choices," HEC Research Papers Series 1069, HEC Paris.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:1069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2535356
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:1069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Antoine Haldemann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hecpafr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.