Assessing business transaction standards and their adoption: A cross case analysis between the SETU and Vektis standards

Nowadays businesses increasingly want to be interoperable so that they can collaborate with other organizations. Interoperability can be achieved through the use of business transaction standards, by which the organizations that use the standards collectively form a value added network. However the effectivity of these standards is largely dependant on the number of organizations that have adopted it, and thus it is very important that the standard conforms to the conditions that organizations have towards adopting these standards. Building on recent literature describing technical standards (van de Kaa, 2009), we have constructed a model through which standard aspects can be compared with the adoption conditions that organizations have. Subsequently cross case analysis methods were used to identify important aspects that influence the adoption of business transaction standards, as well as the identification of methods by which the aspects can be adapted by an Standard Development Organization (SDO) so that higher standard adoption is achieved. This evaluation can give managers and SDO´s a higher understanding on standards itself and the domain it is supposed to function in. The cases demonstrated that early involvement of organizations with high market powers (preferably through a federation that represents these organizations) is important for adoption whereby the development and maintenance of the standard should preferably be funded by those organizations that have most to gain from broad standard adoption. Furthermore open characteristics, modularity and efficient business processes are perceived imperative for the adoption of business transaction standards.