Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(2)

supply chain management

Malhotra,Gosain,andElSawy:LeveragingSEBIstoEnableAdaptiveSupplyChainPartnershipsInformationSystemsResearch18(3),pp.260–279,©2007INFORMSSingh1998).Thevaluecreationpotentialofextended

enterpriserelationshipscanbeleveragedtopursue

newopportunitiesandtobetteradapttomarket

changes(Young-YbarraandWiersema1999;Kopczak

andJohnson2003;Malhotraetal.2001,2005;ElSawy

etal.1999).

Insupplychains,interorganizationalrelationships

arecontinuallyrestructuredtopursuehigher-order

goals(beyondachievingtransactionalef ciencies),

suchasfastermarketentry,newmarketdevelopment,

andinterorganizationallearning,thatarethebasis

forlong-termviability(EisenhardtandSchoonhoven

1996,Gosainetal.2004).Akeyfactordrivingthe

abilityoftheextendedenterprisetoachievelong-

termgoalsinanenvironmentcharacterizedbydis-

ruptiveenvironmentalshiftsisadaptability(Rindova

andKotha2001).

Tosomeextent,anenterprisemayrelyonitsabil-

itytorecon gureinternalcompetencies.However,the

needforchangeinaneraofinterdependenceamong

enterprisesrequiresjointadaptationbyboththeenter-

priseanditspartners.Consider,forexample,theneed

foramanufacturertorefreshproductofferingsin

volatileenvironments.Thisrequiresintermeshednew

productintroductionprocessesthatspantheman-

ufacturer,wholesaledistributors,andretailers.Sup-

plychainpartnershipsalsoprovideopportunitiesfor

enterprisestolearnfromtheirpartnerstobetteradapt

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.