Synthesizing and Integrating Research on IT-Based Value Cocreation: A Meta-Analysis

IT value research has witnessed growing interest in the use of joint IT resources and capabilities following recent shifts in market competition from the firm to the network level. Despite research efforts in this domain, there remain substantial inconsistencies in the IT value cocreation literature regarding the effect of interorganizational IT on business value and the role of methodological and contextual factors. Drawing on the resource-based view and the relational view of the firm, we conducted a meta-analysis to synthesize and integrate the body of knowledge of IT-based value cocreation. Our analysis of 80 studies, encompassing 21,843 observations, highlights the value-generating effect of four interorganizational IT capabilities: IT-based relation-specific assets, IT-based knowledge sharing, IT-based complementary capabilities, and IT-based governance. Insights from our preliminary meta-analysis reveal that contradictory findings are driven by the conceptualization of IT variables as interorganizational IT resources. A further moderator meta-analysis explains divergent empirical findings in the literature. We find that the use of relational-level value and perceptual measures, use of single respondents, and the context of developing countries and supply chain and networked interdependencies result in larger estimates of business value. In contrast, the use of network-level, firm-level, and objective measures; use of matched-pair approaches; and the context of developed countries and pooled interdependencies result in smaller estimates. Overall, this paper provides clarity and structure to the current understanding of the research field by providing explanations for inconsistent findings as well as a foundation for future research and theory development.