Prof. Dr. Kai Spohrer, Associate Professor of Information Systems, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management: “And No One Gets the Short End of the Stick: A Blockchain-Based Approach to Solving the Two-Sided Opportunism Problem in Inter-Organizational Information Sharing”
The threat of opportunistic behavior is an enduring problem for inter-organizational information sharing. The two sides of opportunism in inter-organizational information sharing – information poaching by the information recipient and information manipulation by the information provider – cause high transaction costs and sometimes preclude information sharing relationships altogether. Existing organizational and technological countermeasures against the two-sided threat of opportunism can either not reliably preclude information poaching and manipulation or address only one of them at a time. We develop four design principles for a blockchain-based system that permits information sharing based on sensitive data in inter-organizational business transactions without revealing the actual data. Thus, our solution simultaneously precludes both information poaching and information manipulation, enabling a novel class of information sharing. We instantiate our design principles in a prototype within a multi-firm research consortium for wear-based leasing contracts for machine tools. An evaluation shows that organizations are willing to engage in more inter-organizational information sharing and draw on more sensitive data when using the proposed prototype compared to traditional inter-organizational information systems. Our study contributes to research on opportunism in inter-organizational information sharing and confidentiality in blockchain networks.
Kai Spohrer is Associate Professor of Information Systems with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. In his research, he applies qualitative and quantitative methods as well as design science to understand and shape the development and use of information systems. He is particularly interested in questions related to collaboration and coordination in information systems development, IT healthcare, and blockchain systems.
Digital transformations force organizations to develop and maintain innovative digital products and services. Thus, effectively managing these activities and supporting them with appropriate technology at various levels is crucial for organizational success. To support these goals, Kai Spohrer conducts research at several levels, ranging from psychological explanations of biased behavior in AI system users over team-level analyses of software development methods to investigations into the interactions of software architecture and organizational structure in development organizations. His research has appeared and is forthcoming in Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering, and others.
Prior to joining Frankfurt School, Kai Spohrer was Assistant Professor at the Business School of the University of Mannheim where he completed his habilitation on digital innovation in healthcare and the software industry, focusing particularly on agile development, design, and use of information systems. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Mannheim for his dissertation on collaborative quality assurance and team cognition in software development teams. Over the years, he has spent time as a student and visiting researcher at institutions such as the University of Arkansas, Washington State University, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He is a founding member and the director of content and media of the AIS special interest group “Advances in Sourcing”.
Prof. Dr. Kai Spohrer | Frankfurt School (frankfurt-school.de)
