The impact of information and communication technology on interorganizational coordination

It is widely believed that information and communication technology (ICT) enables organizations to decrease costs and increase capabilities and thus enables one to change interorganizational coordination. The paper focuses on the possible directions of change by describing the impact of ICT on interorganizational coordination structures. So far, ICT is considered to be a driving force. There are, however, other aspects that have an influencing impact on interorganizational coordination. Those aspects are described and by combining those with the possibilities of ICT, guidelines are presented to indicate the direction in which the coordination structures will change. These guidelines are translated to the container transport industry for evaluation purposes. An expert panel was used in which experts from the port of Rotterdam were asked for their opinion in a game. The results of the evaluation lead to conclusions and directions for further research on the impact of ICT on interorganizational coordination.