Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(5)

torinthesuccessfuladaptationininterorganizational

settings(Brennanetal.2003).

Adaptiveinterorganizationalpartnershipsrequirea

greaterdegreeofCIEbetweenpartners(Cannonand

Perreault1999).CIEenablesorganizationstoadjust

toadapttochangingconditions(BrownandDuguid

1991,FiolandLyles1985).Althoughenvironmen-

talshiftscreatesignalsforenterprises(Dill1962),

thesesignalsmaybeweak,confusing,andspurious

(Choo1998).Therefore,broad-ranging,high-quality,

andprivilegedinformationexchangeenablespartners

tomakesenseoftheenvironmentandmakechanges

intheirpartnershiptorespondtotheenvironment.

Hypothesis1.CIEbetweenpartnerspositivelyin u-

encesMAandadaptiveknowledgecreationinsupplychain

partnerships.2

eofSEBIsasBoundaryObjects

Increasingly,enterprisesinvariousindustriesare

formingconsortiatodevelop,adopt,andusestan-

dardstosupportinformationexchangewithpart-

nersandimproveinterorganizationalprocesslinkages

(Zhaoetal.2005).XML-basedstandards,suchas

RosettaNetPIPs,enableenterprisestodeveloppro-

cesslinkageswithbusinesspartnersthataremore

adaptable—i.e.,thatcanbechangedtomeettheneeds

2Theunitofanalysisforthisstudyisasupplychaindyad,where

thepartnerenterprisesbelongtoadjacenttiersofthesupplychain

(e.g.,amanufacturerandawholesaledistributor).265ofthebusinessenvironment(Gosainetal.2004).Thesestandardsspecifyhowactivitiesbeingperformedbyindividualenterprises,asapartofasupplychainpro-cess,shouldbechoreographedandcoordinated(seee-companiontothispaperforacomparisonbetweenEDIandXMLbasedstandards).Inessence,theuseofSEBIsreferstoanexplicitorimplicitagreementoncommonspeci cationsforinformation-exchangefor-matsandprocessingtasksattheinterfacesbetweeninteractingsupplychainpartners.Byvirtueofprovid-ingexplicitorimplicittemplateslinkingprocessandinformationschemaofanenterprisetoitspartners,SEBIscanactasboundaryobjects(BrownandDuguid1998,Star1989).Boundariesbetweenorganizationalentitiescanad-verselyimpactthetransferofinformationandknowl-edge.Theseboundariesarisefromthedifferentinformation(amountand/ortype)entitiespossess,thedegreeofdependenceontheinformation,andthedegreeofcommonunderstanding/knowledgebetweenthoseinvolvedintheexchange(Star1989;Carlile2002,2004).Toserveasaboundary-spanningmechanism,anobjectshouldbeboth exibleandmal-leableforactorsto llinthelocalmeaningandvisionofuse,andsuf cientlyde nedanddurabletoallowshareduse(NeumannandStar1996).SEBIsful llthisrolebyallowingenterprisestomaptheirlocalmeaningsandpracticestoacommonreferentandthennegotiatetheirdifferences.Throughthiscom-monreferentthelocalpracticesofanorganizationsareassociatedwiththelocalpracticesofthepartnerorganization,whichcreatesanunderstandinginpart-nerorganizationsastohowtheirlocalactionsimpacttheprocessesinthepartners’organization.Carlile(2004)suggeststhreeboundariesthatin u-encethetransferofinformationandknowledgebetweenentities:syntactic,semantic,andpragmaticboundaries.Thesyntacticboundaryperspectiveisrootedintheinformationprocessingviewofthe rm(LawrenceandLorsch1967,Galbraith1973,Tushman1978).Thespanningofasyntacticboundaryempha-sizesthedevelopmentofacommon/sharedlanguagebetweenentitiesengagedinexchangetoenableaccessandinformationexchange.AccordingtoCarlile(2004,p.558),whenferencecommonanddependencieslexiconsuf cientlyoftheconsequencespeci estheatdif-the

supply chain management

Malhotra,Gosain,andElSawy:LeveragingSEBIstoEnableAdaptiveSupplyChainPartnerships266

boundary,primaryknowledgeconcerntheboundary

acrossisprovesunproblematic;the

it.oneofprocessingortransferring

However,thedevelopmentofacommonlanguageisanecessarybutnotsuf cientconditionforthetransferofinformationbetweendifferententities.Thedevelopmentofacommon/sharedmeaninghelpsspanthesemanticboundarybetweenentitiesengagedininformationexchange(Dougherty1990).Asharedorcommonmeaninghelpsovercomeanyinterpretivedifferencesthatmayexistattheboundary.Boundaryobjectsareawayofmanagingthetensionbetweendivergentviewpoints(BowkerandStar1999).Orga-nizationalentitiesthatdevelopsharedmeaningswitheachotherarebetterabletounderstandeachother’sneeds.Thisallowsenterprisestoexchangeinforma-tionmoreappropriatelyandadapttheirprocessesandstructurestosuitpartners’needs.Theydonotneedtoexpendcognitiveresourcesintranslatingandinterpretinginformationreceivedfromeachother(Malhotraetal.2005).The nalandhighestlevelofboundarythatcanimpedethetransferofknowledgebetweenentitiesisthepragmaticboundary.Spanningapragmaticbound-aryrequiresprovidinganadequatemeansforassess-ingvalueandthereforesharinginformationacrosstheboundaries.Carlile(2004,p.560)emphasizesthat“tocreatecommonintereststoshareandassessknowl-edgeacrossboundariesrequiressigni cantpracticalandpoliticaleffort.”Inourcontext,atthemostbasiclevel,SEBIsenablethespanningofthesyntacticboundarybetweensup-plychainpartners.SEBIsestablishasharedlanguagebetweenthepartners,whichhasthepotentialofincreasingtheinformation-processingcapacityofthepartners(Galbraith1973).Researchalsosuggeststhatquasi-open,processlinkageandinformationex-changeandmultilateralSEBIsarenotjustvehiclesforreducingtransactioncosts.Theyalsocreatenewcollaborativeopportunities(Premkumar2000,Gosainetal.2004).Asanexample,RosettaNetuserSTMicro-ElectronicsfoundthatintheprocessofimplementingtheRosettaNetPIPs,thecompanyanditscustomerswereabletodevelopgreater“intimacy,”andthisledtolonger-termrelationships.Thecompany’sITdirec-torsays,“Wehavebecomeanintegralpartofourcustomers’internalplanningsystemsandviewthisasInformationSystemsResearch18(3),pp.260–279,©2007INFORMSadistinctcompetitiveadvantage”(Peleg2004).Thus,theuseofSEBIscanreinforcecooperativemotiva-tions.Consequently,itismorelikelythatpartnerswillmoreeasilyprovideeachotherwithinformationthattheyotherwisewouldnot.Inaddition,withSEBIsthe owofinformationcanbelargelyautomated.Therefore,informationcanbeexchangedbetweensupplychainpartnerswithouttheneedforextensiveclari cationorneedtoconveyde nitionsorconstraints.Thebreadthandqualityofinformationexchangearealsolikelytoincreasewiththeuseofstandards.Inthismanner,SEBIscanbeconstruedasadigitaloptioncreationmechanismthatincreasestherichnessoftheinformationavailabletoanenterprisefromitspartners(Overbyetal.2006).TheuseofSEBIstoexchangeinformationwithasupplychainpartnercanalsobeconstruedasameansforanenterprisetobuild“identi cation”withacol-lective.Afterall,thepartnerenterprisemayalreadybeinvolvedinexchangeswithotherenterprisesusingSEBIs.Standardsalsocreatespilloversandnetworkexternalitiesthatbene tthecollective.Identifyingwiththecollectiveallowsanenterprisetorecognizetheopportunityforinformationexchangeandalsotoascribegreatervaluetotheinformation.Further,bycreatingnetworkeffects,SEBIsincreasetherangeofinformationthatmaybeaccessed(i.e.,throughthepartnersofanenterprise’spartners).Inessence,whenpartnersuseSEBIs,theycanintegratediverseknowl-edgeacrosstheirsupplychainpartnerships.Tosummarize,theuseofSEBIsenablesboundary-spanningmechanismsthatallowforCIEbetweensupplychainpartners.Inturn,CIEwithpartnersallowsenterprisestocreateknowledgebyintegrat-inginformationfromdiversepartners,andtorep-resentdifferencesanddependenciesinknowledgedomains(Carlile2004,Levina2005,Kelloggetal.2006)requiredtomutuallyadapttoeachother.There-fore,wehypothesizeamediatedimpactoftheuseofSEBIs:Hypothesis2.TheuseofSEBIspositivelyimpactsMAandadaptiveknowledgecreationinsupplychainsindirectlybyenablingCIEbetweenpartners.Malhotraetal.(2005)haveproposedthattheuseofSEBIsasaboundarymechanismhasanimpactonstructuringandinformationexchangecapacity

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