Collaboration and Conflict in the Electronic Integration of Supply Networks

The integration of supply networks to ensure timely and high quality information sharing between trading partners is an essential component in supply chain performance development. Electronic data interchange (EDI) and other interorganizational systems (IOS) are able to support these goals, however the diffusion of these systems throughout the supply chain is by no means guaranteed. Integration very often fails due to conflicting interests of the supply chain members and because of the lack of commonly accepted IT and process standards. We apply the Adoption Position model in a form of comparative case studies to explain the reasons of success and failure of recent IOS adoptions. We analyse several tiers of an international supply chain and derive the conclusion that the intention to adopt a specific IOS and the relative power relationship between trading partners together determine the adoption decision and the degree of collaboration within the supply network.