Abstract

“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” (Wittgenstein) Supply chain management (SCM) deals with the management of flows of goods, funds and information within and between supply chain partners in order to satisfy customer needs in the most efficient way. Consequently, business processes and information systems (IS) must be integrated between supply chain partners. However, many business process and information system integration projects fail, are postponed or exceed budget. Following the outcome of different explorative field studies, we elaborate on a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon based on philosophy of language. By characterizing IS as language communities, we highlight the importance of using domain-specific languages for the success of these projects and introduce a theoretical cost model for analyzing business process and IS integration projects.

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