Leveraging Standard Electronic Business Interfaces to(8)

supply chain management

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

facescanbeseenasimposingdesignrules(Brusoni

andPrencipe2006)thatassignfunctionstoenter-prises,identifyoperatingprinciples,andsetspeci -cationsthatdeterminehoworganizationscoevolve.

Standardsprovidecodi edspeci cationsthatpre-scriberulesofengagementamongcomponentsofa

system(GarudandKumaraswamy1995).Theuseof

interorganizationalstandardsrequiresenterprisesto rstmapandunderstandtheirend-to-endprocesses,

aswellasbecomeawareoftheirdependencieswithrespecttotheirpartnerenterprises.

Further,theuseofSEBIsrequirespartnerstoex-

pendresourcesupfronttoensurethattheirinternalsystemsandprocessesareadjustedtoleverageand

enableinterorganizationallinkages.Asanexample,in

itsRosettaNetimplementation,theSTMicroelectron-

icsimplementationteamdevotedapproximatelyfourmonthstode ningtherequiredprocessesandhow

theyweretobesupportedbytechnology,standards,

infrastructure,andadditionalplanningapplications

(Peleg2004).Theteamthende nedallthecollabora-tiveforecastingstandardinterfaces(PIPs)itwantedto

use,aswellastherelevantbusiness-to-business(B2B)

applications.Thislevelofeffortsignalsalong-term

commitmenttopartnershipandcreationof“common-

at-stake”(Carlile2002,2004).Consequently,SEBIscan

leadtoagreaterpropensityofpartnerstoengageinMA.

Cognitively,SEBIsallowenterprisestobuildcapac-

itytoexchangeinformationwithpartnersandas-

similatetheexchangedinformationtocreatenew

knowledge.SEBIscanin uencetheabsorptivecapac-

ityoftheenterprisesengagedininformation,ex-change(Malhotraetal.2005).Theuseofstandards

allowsenterprisestoacquireinformationfrompart-

nersandassimilateitwithoutuniquetranslation

andinterpretationrequirements.Also,byautomating

the owofroutinetransactioninformation,theuse

ofSEBIsallowsthehumanactorsinorganizationstoredirecttheircognitiveresourcestowardtrans-

formingandexploitingthecollaborativeinformation

exchangedwithpartners.Theenhancedabsorptive

capacityofenterprisesinvolvedinexchangeenables

themtocreateknowledgethatenablesthedevelop-

mentofdynamiccapabilitiesrequiredtoadapttotheirenvironment(ZahraandGeorge2002).Basedon267ourdiscussionofcognitiveandstructuralimpactofuseofSEBIs,wehypothesize:Hypothesis3.TheuseofSEBIshasadirectpositiveimpactonMAandadaptiveknowledgecreationinsupplychains.2.4.ControlVariablesAdaptiveinteractionpatternsinbusinesspartner-shipsarelikelytobein uencedbythedevelopmentofcooperativenormsbetweeninteractingentities.“Cooperativenormsre ectexpectationsthetwoexchangingpartieshaveaboutworkingtogethertoachievemutualandindividualgoalsjointly”(CannonandPerreault1999,p.443).Cooperativenormsassurethat“relationshipatmosphereisavailabletoshapeperceptionsofunfoldingeventsandsotheverynatureoftheongoinginteractionprocessesarefor-everformingadynamicandevernewbusinessrela-tionship”(Medlin2004,p.190).Therefore,inthisresearch,wewanttostudytheimpactofSEBIsoninformationexchangeandadaptivepatternsofsup-plychainpartnershipsaboveandbeyondthatofcooperativenorms.Inaddition,wealsocontrolforrelationshiptimeofsupplychainpartnerships.Rela-tionshiptimehasbeenarguedtobeanimportantdeterminantoftheevolutionoffocusofpartnerships,fromeconomicexchangeinteractionstoadaptationinteractions(Medlin2004).Figure1presentstheresearchmodelaroundwhichthefourhypotheseshavebeenderived.Inthenextsection,wedescribetheresearchmethodologyand eldcontextusedtotestthesehypotheses.3.ResearchFieldContextMethodologyand3.1.FieldContextandDataCollectionThisresearchstudywasconductedinthecontextoftheRosettaNetB2Binitiative.RosettaNet()isaconsortiumofmajorIT,electroniccomponent,semiconductormanufacturing,telecom-municationsequipment,andlogisticsenterprisesworkingtocreateandimplementindustrywide,opene-businessprocessstandardsforsupplychaincollab-oration.Thestudybuildsontheauthors’two-yearinvolvementwiththeRosettaNetConsortium.Inthe