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Strategic and Operational Benefits of B2B Data Exchange Technologies in Supply Chain Management
Abstract
The diffusion of electronic media for b2b data exchange in supply chain management, especially electronic data interchange (EDI), has reached an advanced level among most large firms. But penetration of these technologies is still far away from a 100% usage level. In Europe, 39% of firms exchange data electronically by means of standardized formats, a total of 23% applies EDI standards (Berlecon Research 2004). On a global scale, 95% of the Fortune 1000 companies used EDI a few years ago, but only 5% of smaller companies were EDI users (Kottok and Webber 2001). Consequently, it is highly probable that a firm that uses EDI cannot apply EDI for all its transactions and therefore uses several technologies for b2b data exchange. As a consequence, the efficiency advantages and benefits that are related to EDI and Web-based data exchange are not exploited for a firm’s total transactions. It is possible, however, that a firm’s optimal EDI penetration is less than 100% due to related costs and strategic reasons. The research in progress at hand addresses the problem of multiple technologies in b2b data exchange. By today, there is little knowledge both in IS research as well as in supply chain management and logistics research concerning the question of costs and benefits of different data exchange technologies used within a single firm. In order to gain insights into the nature of performance of data exchange technologies, a research framework is developed that will be empirically tested by means of real-life data of a cooperating retailer. The firm belongs to the top three Austrian food retailers and pioneers in application of retail technology and electronic business tools. It is also a very active member of the national Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiative. This active role in ECR does favor the retailer’s interest in b2b collaboration and related EDI support but it can also contribute to specific benefits for the retailer.
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