Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(7)

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