Projects

The Network Enterprise: the Shaping of Institutions & Standards in e-Business

Aims

The project will develop an understanding of the development of Web Service based business to business e-commerce, including SOAP, WSDL, UDDI and ebXML.

Specific research questions include:

• Does standardisation lead to harmonisation in business practices or does the flexibility of XML based standards facilitate diversity?
• Are any actors excluded from the standardisation process and if so what are the effects of this exculsions?
• How is trust in inter-organisational relations assured through the technical and institutional infrastructure of XML-based e-commerce?

Methodology

The research will include case studies of the developement of XML-based B2B e-commerce at global, local and sectoral level, a study of the adoption of the standards by a software system vendor and three sectoral studies of the implementation of the standards, provisionally in grocery distribution, insurance electronics.

The understanding of the social technological issues surrounding B2B e-commerce will be valuable for public policy, industrial users and software vendors formulating their strategic response to the emergence of XML-based B2B e-commerce, covering both their involovement in the standards process and their implementation of the standards.The project will run for 24 months and will start in March 2003

Keywords

e-commerce; XML; standardisation

Publications

Bunduchi Ralica, Graham Ian, Smart Alison and Williams Robin 2005, "The tensions shaping the emergence of standard bodies: The case of a national health informatics standard standards body", Prometheus, 23(2), pg. 149-166.

Graham, I., Pollock, N., Smart, A., Williams, R., "Institutionalisation of e-Business Standards", in Proceeding of the Workshop on Standard Making: A Critical Research Frontier for Information Systems, John L. King and Kalle Lyytien, (eds.), Seattle, WA, December 12-14, 2003, pp.1-9

Between public and private - the nature of today's standards (pdf)

Understanding the Evolution of Standards: Alignment and Reconfiguration in Standards Development and Implementation Arenas (pdf)

Current issues in RFID standardisation (pdf)

The tensions shaping the emergence of standard bodies: The case of a national health informatics standards body (pdf)

IT Standardisation - the Economic and the Sociology Accounts (pdf)

XML standards and standard settings. The case of XML standards in the NHS Scotland (pdf)

Additional Documents

Project Summart. A Report on the Shaping of Institutions and Standards in e-Business. (pdf)

Workshop. "Dynamics of e-Business Standardisation" (pdf)