Starting with EDI-Applications in the late 1980�s, interorganizational systems (IOS) have become a strategic factor for inter-firm networks. In IOS investment, however, decision makers face two specific evaluation problems: unclear benefit sharing amongst the partners and risk for opportunistic behavior. These uncertainties heavily diminish the contribution of traditional cost-benefit evaluations for supporting investment decisions, leaving many positive opportunities unrealized and many network partners exploited. In order to provide transparency in terms of benefit sharing and opportunism in collective investments, we qualitatively compare the economic organization of the airline network Star Alliance�s new Common IT Platform to the existing infrastructure, StarNet. The results show that StarNet was unfavourable for all leading partners while the net benefits realized by passive members were relatively high. In contrast, the new infrastructure's benefit distribution is much better balanced on a high level. From a management perspective, StarNet must hence be understood as a test case before stepping up to the\r\nmajor investment the Common Platform represents. For the future, the results stress the importance of\r\nallowing or even fostering free riding by passive members in early stages of the cooperation.
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