Interorganizational relationships and online information resources

We present a description of research-in-progress into the organizational contexts and interorganizational relationships which generate demand for online information (OI) resources. Researchers who examine the use of OI resources have found that people don't use online information as often as providers generally expect. But some organizations use these resources intensively within certain contexts. Our study focuses on professional firms and biotechnology companies who use OI resources routinely during interorganizational relationship building and mediation seeking activities. The OI resources they use contain digital documentation of corporate histories, researcher expertise, product marketing success, and executive affiliations that help firm members develop legal strategies, evaluate potential partners and size up the competition. Our examination of how these networked organizational professionals interact with OI resources will help us theorize about OI resource demand. As we identify how organizations use OI resources to help establish and maintain interorganizational relationships, we will also identify, how associated business and organizational practices may be changing.