Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(15)

supply chain management

Malhotra,Gosain,andElSawy:LeveragingSEBIstoEnableAdaptiveSupplyChainPartnerships274

therAKC.Also,withoutuseofstandardinterfaces,

thepartnersmaybefavorablydisposedtoexchange

broader-rangeandprivilegedinformationwitheach

other(exhibitbonding),buttheyfaceobstaclesincon-

nectingtootherstodrawoneachothers’knowledge

bases(lackbridging).Bridgingandbondingareinex-

tricablyintertwinedintheireffectsonadaptiveness

ofsupplychainpartnershipsinthedigitallyenabled

extendedenterprisewhenSEBIsareinvolved.

5.2.BridgingandBondingThroughSEBIsin

theDigitallyEnabledExtendedEnterprise

Therearetwoopposingviewsonhowanorganiza-

tion’slearningandadaptationarein uencedbythe

networkinwhichitisembedded(Kraatz1998):the

strengthofweaktiesandthestrengthofstrongties.

Theliteratureonstrengthofweaktiesholdstheview

thatweaklytiedentitiesinanetworkaremorelikely

tohavenonoverlappingknowledgebasesthatpro-

videdistinctivevalue(Burt1982;Granovetter1973,

1982).Basedonthelogicofrequisitevariety,thelarger

thevarietyoftiestheenterprisehas,thebetteroffitis

intermsoflearningandadaptation.TheuseofSEBIs

byenterprisesinsupplychainsmakesiteasytolink

tonewpartnerswhentheneedarises.Inthisway,the

useofSEBIsbyenterpriseswillhelpthemcapitalize

onthestrengthofweakties.

However,atthesametime,theliteratureonthe

strengthofstrongtiessuggeststhatstrongtiesenable

betteradaptation(Kraatz1998).Suchtiesexhibithigh

interactivitybetweenenterprisesandhighinterdepen-

dence(Granovetter1982,Krackhardt1992).Although

thisviewdoesnotrefutetheclaimthatstrongerties

mayreducethenumberofinformationsources,it

doeshoweverpointtoseveralbene tsofstrongties

thatovercomethisdrawback(Kraatz1998).Strong

tiesencouragethecreationofhigh-capacityinfor-

mationlinksbetweenenterprisesandallowsthem

toshareinsightsandexperienceswitheachother

(Kraatz1998).

Our ndingssuggestthattheuseofSEBIsbetween

partnersletsthemleveragestrongtiesbyenabling

high-capacity(broader-rangeandmoreprivileged)

informationlinks.Thesharedunderstandingcreated

throughtheSEBIsalsoleadstobetterunderstand-

ingofthespeci cinformationneedsofpartners.At

thesametime,theveryactofadoptingandusingInformationSystemsResearch18(3),pp.260–279,©2007INFORMSstandard(but exible)interfacesbuildsastrongbondbetweenpartners,motivatingtheirMA.TheuseofSEBIsletsanenterprise’spartnerknowthattheenter-priseisactinginthepartner’sbestinterestandthatthepartnerisnotlockedintoapartnershipbyadopt-ingandusingSEBIs.Thus,standardized(yet exible)interfacesbeingdevelopedandpromotedbyinstitu-tionssuchasRosettaNetreconcilethestrengthsofweakandstrongties.Therefore,theuseofSEBIscanfacilitatebridgingandbondingwithoutbindinginthedigitallyenabledextendedenterprise.TheuseofSEBIsactsasabridgingmechanismandallowspart-nerstobringperspectivesfromdifferentpartnershipsthatenrichtheCIEbetweenpartners.Thus,theuseofSEBIsisadual-purposemechanismofenablingnet-workeffectsintransactionalexchange,whileitmayalsosignalthewillingnesstocollaborateandadapttotheneedsofthepartner.5.3.DesigningandEffectivelyDeployingSEBIsOurstudysuggeststheimportanceofnurturingtheCIEtodevelopanunderstandingofhowtoadapttochange.Thisrequiresaninvestmentinbuildingawarenessofhowcompetencecanbeprocuredfrompartners(throughsharingofbroad-rangingandpriv-ilegedinformation)andblendedwithorganizationalexpertise.Italsorequiresafoundationallevelofknowledgetobeabletoseekoutandevaluatepart-nerskillsandtheabsorptivecapacitytoassimilateit(CohenandLevinthal1990,Malhotraetal.2005).Theroleofinformationsystemsincapturinganddissemi-natingknowledgeandsupportingitsinterpretationisimportant,especiallywhenabroad-rangeofinforma-tionissharedwithpartners.Suchknowledge-creationfocusedsystemsneedtobedesignedto exiblyrep-resentknowledgeandtoallowemployeestoiden-tifytheirassumptionsaboutpartnersandenvisiontheimpactofchangesinthevaluenetworkinwhichtheirenterpriseresides(Malhotraetal.2005).InadditiontotheseprerequisitesfordesigningandeffectivelydeployingSEBIsinthecontextofthedigitallyenabledextendedenterprise,thestudyhasimplicationsforthetightnessofspeci cationforthefunctionalrequirementsofSEBIs.Theuseofstan-dardsalsoprovidesstructureforinformationex-changestobecodedandprovidesagrammarforinformationtobeexpressed.Tosustainbroad-ranging