Impact of Information Technology (IT) Security Information Sharing among Competing IT Firms on Firm’s Financial Performance: An Empirical Investigation

Traditionally, IT firms closely guard the management and control of critical information assets. A group of IT firms, however, adopted a different approach and formed an organization with the goal of sharing critical IT security information with industry peers (firms in the same industry that do not directly compete) and competitors in order to work toward effective management of IT security. The inherent vulnerability in the sharing of critical information other (potentially competing) firms presents an interesting, coopetion paradox for firms. Drawing from the theoretical foundations of the relational view of the firm that resolves the coopetition paradox, this research explores whether security information sharing impacts firm's financial performance. The results of the empirical test reveal that IT firms engaged in interfirm security information sharing outperform their industry peers in terms of operational costs and overall profitability.