Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(6)

supply chain management

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

informationcanberelatedtoanenterprise’sstrat-

egy,distinctivecompetencies,undocumentedproduct

capabilities,orcriticalcustomerorsupplierdepen-

dencies.Soprivilegedinformationgoesbeyondthe

collectionandreportingofstandardinformationthat

issymbolicofarm’s-lengthpartnerships(Malhotra

etal.2005).Privilegedinformationisspeci ctothe

receivingpartnerandinherentlytendstobepro-

prietaryandcon dentialinnature(Cannonand

Perreault1999).Consequently,itprovidesthepart-

nerwithauniqueperspectivenototherwiseavailable.

Exchangeofprivileged—unusuallydetailed,con -

dential,orsensitive—informationisanimportantfac-

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