Abstract
The need for collaboration within value chains is rapidly increasing and drives enterprise to align and
electronically integrate their business processes with their business partners. As technologies evolve,
manifold forms of B2B integration have emerged – from e-mail communication to customer or
supplier portals, the exchange of EDIFACT- to XML documents, and Web Services. Although serviceoriented architectures (SOA) are considered the future of inter-organizational linkages, no empirical
studies have been found which surveyed the impact of SOA on B2B integration costs and benefits.
From a research perspective, we still lack a systematic analysis that explains how a specific B2B
integration technology impacts the effectiveness of B2B integration.
Building on transaction cost theory, this research analyzes the different forms of B2B integration with
regard to their impact on connectivity and coordination costs. Based on a field study from the automotive industry, it demonstrates that there is economic rationale for preferring supplier portals to
machine-to-machine integration based on EDIFACT or XML messages. Compared to prior
technologies, SOA reduces the costs of external integration by eliminating separate B2B integration
infrastructures and improving connectivity of internal applications. However, we find that prior
literature tends to overestimate the impact of open Internet and Web service technologies on
connectivity costs.
Recommended Citation
Legner, Christine, "Understanding the manifold forms of B2B integration - A transaction cost perspective" (2009). ECIS 2009 Proceedings. 432.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2009/432