Increasingly, companies use interorganizational information systems to conduct joint business processes, suchrnas automatic replenishment systems and other supply chain initiatives, invoicing and payments, insurancernclaims processing and numerous other interorganizational processes. Inter-firm networking in turn increasesrnthe visibility of information generated and used by business partners. These business partners may experiencernintended and unintended impacts from the changes in the partnering relationship, in effect altering the ecologyrnof the organization. In this paper we briefly review principles of ecology from the natural and social sciences.rnThen, drawing on emerging principles of organizational ecology and information ecology, we propose arndefinition of interorganizational information ecology. An example from health care demonstrates thernusefulness of the concept, and we conclude with suggestions for field-based research on the ecology ofrninterorganizational information visibility.
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