The Impact of Data Integration on the Costs and Benefits of Information Systems

TLDR

Many organizations cannot coordinate organization‑wide responses to business problems because they lack shared data elements and codes across information systems. The article challenges the assumption that data always yields net benefits and calls for better conceptualization and methods for partial integration. Using organizational information‑processing theory, the authors construct a model linking data integration to gains in coordination and decision making, losses in local autonomy and flexibility, and changes in system design and implementation costs, supported by theory and case examples. The model shows that data benefits outweigh costs only in certain situations and are unlikely to apply to all organizational data.

Abstract

For many organizations, the ability to make coordinated, organization-wide responses to today's business problems is thwarted by the lack of data or commonly defined data elements and codes across different information systems. Though many researchers and practitioners have implicitly assumed that data always results in net benefits to an organization, this article questions that view. Based on theories of organizational information processing, a model of the impact of data is developed that includes gains in organization-wide coordination and organization-wide decision making, as well as losses in local autonomy and flexibility, and changes in system design and implementation costs. The importance of each of these impacts is defended by theoretical arguments and illustrated by case examples. This model suggests that the benefits of data will outweigh costs only under certain situations, and probably not for all the data the organization uses. Therefore, MIS researchers and practitioners should consider the need for better conceptualization and methods for implementing partial integration in organization.