Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(2)

tohigh-velocitymarketenvironments.Therefore,in

thispaperwerefertoadaptivesupplychainpartner-

shipsasthoseinwhich rmsconstitutingtheextended

enterprise:(a)adjusttheirprocedures,processes,and

structurestosuiteachotherand(b)leverageeach

others’knowledgeresourcestocreatetheknowledge

requiredtoadapttothemarketenvironment.

Interenterpriseelectronicinterconnectionsthatare

architecturallysound(fromatechnicalaswellasbusi-

nessperspective)allowexploitationofnewopportu-

nitiesthroughdigitalenablementofextendedenter-

prises.Thequestfortransactionalef cienciesand

automatedbusinessprocessintegrationbetweenap-

plicationsandacrosssupplychainpartnershascre-

atedthenecessityfortheuseofSEBIs.Thecurrent

generationofmultilateral,quasi-open,andextensi-

bleSEBIs(seeWigandetal.2005foracasestudyin

thehomemortgageindustry)thatsupportstructured261interenterpriseprocessinterfacesmayalsobeawaytomakeextendedenterprisemoreadaptive.The rstgenerationofSEBIs,adoptedinthe1980swithelectronicdatainterchange(EDI),tooktheformofmessagestandardsthatallowedcomputer-to-computerexchangeofstructuredinformationaroundtransactions.However,EDI-typeSEBIshaddisadvan-tagesintermsofin exibilityandcost,andadop-tionofsuchstandardswaslimitedtoapplicationsrelatedtopurchasingprocesses.Consequently,EDI-typeSEBIshadfairlylimitedimpactintransform-ingenterprisesandinterenterpriserelationships.ThesecondgenerationofSEBIstriggeredin1998bytheRosettaNetConsortiumisstructurallydifferent,com-prisingbothbusinessprocessstandards,calledpartnerinterfaceprocesses(PIPs),aswellasdatadictionarystandardsforproductdescriptionsandspeci cations.Thisallowsmany-to-manyelectronicconnectivityrelationshipsandheraldsamuchricherandmore exibleformofbusinessprocessconnectivityacrossenterprises.Further,interorganizationalconnectivityisaidedintechnicalimplementationand exibilitybythedevelopmentofXML(extensiblemarkuplanguage)andassociatedtechnologies.1Theemergenceof ex-iblemarkupformatsandconnectivityinfrastructurehasprovidedanimpetustovariousenterprisestoparticipateinindustryconsortiatocollaborativelydevelopnewstandards(e.g.,Rosettanetstandards).Thesesecond-generationSEBIsgobeyondstandard-izinginformationexchangebyalsostandardizinginterenterpriseprocesslinkages(Gosainetal.2003).Thesestandardshavebroughtaboutthepotentialfornewopportunitiesandpathwaysforchangingthewaydigitallyenabledextendedenterprisescanworktogether,developnewcompetencies,andman-agetheirpartneringrelationships.WeproposethattheuseofSEBIshasasignif-icantimpactontheadaptivenessoftheextended1Pleaseseethee-companiontothispaperforadetailedcomparisonofXML-basedSEBIstoEDI-typeSEBIs.Thee-companionisavail-ableontheInformationSystemsResearchwebsite(/ecompanion.html).Thecomparisonalsohighlightsthede nitionofsecond-generationSEBIs.Theelectronicsupplement

alsopresentsabackgroundforRosettaNet.

supply chain management

Malhotra,Gosain,andElSawy:LeveragingSEBIstoEnableAdaptiveSupplyChainPartnerships262

enterprisebyshapinginformationexchangesandpro-

cessesbetweenenterprises.Standardslayoutthedoc-

umentschemasandtheconditionalchoreographyofdocumentexchangesneededtocompleteabusi-nessprocessextendedacrossmultipleenterprises.

Atthesametime,thesestandardsaffordenterprisesthe exibilityofcustomizingsomeprocess-related

parameterstoadapttotherequirementsoftheirpart-

ners.Further,deploymentanduseofsuchstandardsenableenterprisestosimultaneouslyexchangeinfor-

mationwithmultipleextendedenterprisepartners.Suchanexchangewouldotherwisehaverequired

extensiveeffortinone-to-onecustomizationofinfor-

mationexchangeparameters.WeviewtheSEBIsastemplatesthatinscribebroadpatternsofinformation

exchangeininterenterprisesystems,allowingfree-

domforenterprisestorespondtochange,yetprevent

exchangesfrombecomingentirelyidiosyncratictoarelationship.Thisstudyseekstoexaminethefollow-

ingresearchquestion:HowdoestheuseofSEBIsenable

adaptivesupplychainpartnerships?

Whilethepotentialgainsfromadaptiveinteror-ganizationallinkagesareapparent,thenurturingof

thesecapabilitiesisnoteasy.Asigni cantchallenge

isthatenterprisesmay,overtime,developstickypat-

ternswithentrenchedpartners,andthesemaybe

veryresistanttochange(VandenBoschetal.1999).

Also,itcanbearguedthatenterprisesfaceatrade-offbetweenreachandrichnessintermsoftheirexternal

partnerships(FjeldstadandHaanaes2001).Therefore,

enterprisescaneithermaintainshort-termtransac-

tionalcontractswithalargenumberofsuppliersor

long-termrelationalcontractswithafewsuppliers

(Madhok2002,p.544).Thisimpliestwotypesofbar-riers:notknowingenoughaboutapartnerandits

specializeddomainorprocesses(lackofbonding)or

beingtooboundwithapartnertobeabletomaintain

diversityinperspectives(lackofbridging).

Inaddressingthecentralresearchquestioninthis

study,wedrawonrecenttheoreticalworkrelatedtoboundariesthatimpactknowledgetransfer(Carlile

2002,2004)toconceptualizeSEBIsasaboundary-

百度搜索“77cn”或“免费范文网”即可找到本站免费阅读全部范文。收藏本站方便下次阅读，免费范文网，提供经典小说医药卫生Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(2)在线全文阅读。