supply chain management
Malhotra,Gosain,andElSawy:LeveragingSEBIstoEnableAdaptiveSupplyChainPartnershipsInformationSystemsResearch18(3),pp.260–279,©2007INFORMS273Figure2ResultsofPathAnalysis
0.28
0.24
Notes.Allsolidpathsshownaresigni cantatthep<0 05level.Thedottedpathisnotsigni cantatthep<0 05level. Signi cantatp<0 05level.5.OurresultsdemonstratethattheuseofSEBIscan
indeedin uenceadaptivenessofsupplychainpart-
nerships.Hypotheses1and2aresupported,while
Hypothesis3ispartiallysupported.CIEbetweensup-
plychainpartnersmediatestheeffectoftheuseof
SEBIsonadaptivenessofsupplychainpartnerships.
TheresultsalsoshowthattheuseofSEBIshasbotha
directandindirectassociationwithMAandanindi-
rectassociationwithAKC(mediatedthroughCIE).
Incombination,theseresultshaveseveralimplica-
tionsforunderstandingadaptivesupplychainpart-
nershipsindigitallyenabledextendedenterprisesand
thedesignofSEBIs.
5.1.UnderstandingAdaptiveSupplyChain
PartnershipsThroughtheUseofSEBIs
Thestudyhasidenti edandarticulatedtwodiffer-
entaspectsofadaptivesupplychainpartnershipsin
thedigitallyenabledextendedenterprise.MArequires
focusingattentiononconnectingtwodisparateenter-
prisesusing exiblestructuringmechanisms.OntheImplicationsoftheStudyotherhand,AKCemphasizesmindfulnessoflearning-relatedgoalsintherelationship.Wehaveuncoveredtwounexpected ndingsinexplainingthetwosalientcharacteristicsofadaptivesupplychainpartnerships.First,althoughweexpectedSEBIstohaveadirecteffectonbothdimensions,wefoundthatattainingthelearning-relatedoutcomeiscontingentonCIEintheextendedenterprise.Broad-ranging,privileged(toalargeextent),andhigh-quality(toalesserextent)informationexchangewiththesupplychainpartnersisthebasisfordeeperunderstandingaboutthemar-ketenvironmentsbyanenterprise.Themoretypesofinformation(range)areexchanged,themorecom-pletepictureaboutthemarketenvironmentemergesforthereceivingpartner.Similarly,privilegedinfor-mationmaybemoretrustedandmayrequirelesscognitiveefforttodigesttounderstandthemarketdynamic.Fromtheresult,italsoseemsthatrangeandspeci cnatureofinformationexchangeismorevalu-ablethanthequalityofinformation.TheresultalsosuggeststhatwhentheuseofSEBIsresultsinCIE,acommonunderstandingisestab-lishedthatcanthenbeusedasaspringboardforfur-
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