Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(14)

supply chain management

Malhotra,Gosain,andElSawy:LeveragingSEBIstoEnableAdaptiveSupplyChainPartnershipsInformationSystemsResearch18(3),pp.260–279,©2007INFORMS273Figure2ResultsofPathAnalysis

0.28

0.24

Notes.Allsolidpathsshownaresigni cantatthep<0 05level.Thedottedpathisnotsigni cantatthep<0 05level. Signi cantatp<0 05level.5.OurresultsdemonstratethattheuseofSEBIscan

indeedin uenceadaptivenessofsupplychainpart-

nerships.Hypotheses1and2aresupported,while

Hypothesis3ispartiallysupported.CIEbetweensup-

plychainpartnersmediatestheeffectoftheuseof

SEBIsonadaptivenessofsupplychainpartnerships.

TheresultsalsoshowthattheuseofSEBIshasbotha

directandindirectassociationwithMAandanindi-

rectassociationwithAKC(mediatedthroughCIE).

Incombination,theseresultshaveseveralimplica-

tionsforunderstandingadaptivesupplychainpart-

nershipsindigitallyenabledextendedenterprisesand

thedesignofSEBIs.

5.1.UnderstandingAdaptiveSupplyChain

PartnershipsThroughtheUseofSEBIs

Thestudyhasidenti edandarticulatedtwodiffer-

entaspectsofadaptivesupplychainpartnershipsin

thedigitallyenabledextendedenterprise.MArequires

focusingattentiononconnectingtwodisparateenter-

prisesusing exiblestructuringmechanisms.OntheImplicationsoftheStudyotherhand,AKCemphasizesmindfulnessoflearning-relatedgoalsintherelationship.Wehaveuncoveredtwounexpected ndingsinexplainingthetwosalientcharacteristicsofadaptivesupplychainpartnerships.First,althoughweexpectedSEBIstohaveadirecteffectonbothdimensions,wefoundthatattainingthelearning-relatedoutcomeiscontingentonCIEintheextendedenterprise.Broad-ranging,privileged(toalargeextent),andhigh-quality(toalesserextent)informationexchangewiththesupplychainpartnersisthebasisfordeeperunderstandingaboutthemar-ketenvironmentsbyanenterprise.Themoretypesofinformation(range)areexchanged,themorecom-pletepictureaboutthemarketenvironmentemergesforthereceivingpartner.Similarly,privilegedinfor-mationmaybemoretrustedandmayrequirelesscognitiveefforttodigesttounderstandthemarketdynamic.Fromtheresult,italsoseemsthatrangeandspeci cnatureofinformationexchangeismorevalu-ablethanthequalityofinformation.TheresultalsosuggeststhatwhentheuseofSEBIsresultsinCIE,acommonunderstandingisestab-lishedthatcanthenbeusedasaspringboardforfur-