Abstract: Electronic commerce (E-commerce) is sharing business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks. Traditional E-commerce, conducted with the use of information technologies centering on electronic data interchange (EDI) over proprietary value-added networks, is rapidly moving to the Internet. The Internet's World Wide Web has become the prime driver of contemporary E-commerce. This paper presents a hierarchical framework of E-commerce development, as well as of analysis, range from the wide-area telecommunications infrastructure to electronic marketplaces and electronic hierarchies enabled by E-commerce. Several nodal problems are discussed that will define future development in E-commerce, including integrating electronic payment into the buying process, building a consumer marketplace, the governance of electronic business, and the new intermediation. The paper also introduces the International Journal of Electronic Commerce, which will provide an integrated view of the new E-commerce.

This paper specifies a generalizable model of exchange processes and develops a processstakeholder analysis framework to evaluate alternative market designs. This framework is applied to analyze a number of information technology initiatives in the Dutch flower markets. The Dutch flower auctions are the world’s leading centers for trading cut flowers and potted plants. We undertake a cross-case analysis and apply our framework to analyse successes and failures in the introduction of new IT-based trading mechanisms in these markets. Based on our study, we develop a number of testable propositions on: the separation of physical and informational processes in trading, the responses of stakeholders to changes in available information due to IT initiatives, and economic and incentive conditions required for adoption of new trading processes. Finally, our detailed cases illustrate the institutional and incentive constraints, and complexities encountered in the introduction of new electronic markets.

The paper investigates the challenges of process ownership in business processes crossing organizational boundaries. A literature review explores the research traditions of business process reengineering, interorganizational systems (IOS), workflow management, and system development with regard to process ownership and the changing role from intraorganizational issues to interorganizational issues. The result is a list of relevant process owner tasks, classified by different issues in which a shift of focus is suggested.

New trends in globalization encourage firms to consider new forms of organizational structures and supporting information system infrastructure. Information systems for these emerging global business networks are hard to specify because of their complexity and changeability. A problem with current specification methods is that they are not sufficiently capable of capturing the context of the information system. To address this problem, we examine the role that reference models can play in increasing the context-sensitivity of such methods. In this paper we present the reference framework from the RENISYS approach to help in the specification of more adequate information system infrastructure for business networks. Within this framework we distinguish between three modeling levels: the problem domain, human network, and information system level. To further refine the problem domain we apply the roles-linkage model from the area of network analysis. This model is used to represent the actors and links between those actors as the basis for the exact definition of the communication patterns between the participants of the network. A small case study shows how such a context-sensitive specification method could be implemented. 1.

Abstract We present the design of a service oriented architecture which facilitates flexible managerial decision making in dynamic business networks. We have implemented and tested this architecture in the MinneTAC trading agent, which is designed to compete in the Supply Chain Trading Agent Competition [4]. Our design enables managers to break out decision behaviors into separate, configurable components, and allows dynamic construction of analysis and modeling tools from small, single-purpose “evaluator ” services. The result of our design is that the network can easily be configured to test a new theory and analyze the impact of various approaches to different elements of the agent’s decision processes, such as procurement, sales, production, and inventory management. Additionally we describe visualizers that allow managers to see and manipulate the configuration of the network, and to construct economic dashboards that can display the current and historical state of any node in the network. 1

This paper reviews the literature on interorganizational information systems. It has long been argued that information technology can have profound effects on the structure and process of inter-firm relationships. This proposition has gained additional importance with the advent of internet, and resultant forms of business to business transactions over the web. Despite the interest and volume of research on this topic few theoretical generalizations have emerged. The lack of theorization has been compounded by the fact that the literature has grown in many directions to address various technological and practitioner concerns. To date, there have not been many reviews that put this body of work in perspective. To address this gap we propose a framework to review this field of research, and provide a means to reconcile the differences and appreciate the complementarities that run through this research stream. Our framework is based on two important themes, Interorganizational information systems, and interorganizational relationships. We argue that the research in this area can be effectively analyzed by understanding the persuasion of the researchers regarding these two central themes. The review is followed by a discussion of future research directions in this area.

Extended enterprises are networks of organizations interconnected to exchange critical resources, such as raw materials, labor, access to markets, specialized skills and knowledge. Information technology (IT) is a key component in managing these interorganizational dependencies. IT can be used to disintermediate supply chain partners or, conversely, tightly couple relations by binding operational functions, processes, strategic plans and knowledge. As IT strategies are developed and implemented, how can organizations visualize and manage interorganizational linkages to gain or maintain competitive advantage? To address this problem, this paper uses the Dependency Network Diagrams (DNDs) representation methodology to augment existing strategic frameworks. DNDs diagrammatically depict the exchange channels, governance controls, and roles within the extended enterprise. DNDs enable the essential elements governing interorganizational relations to be captured and communicated, compared with alternative arrangements, and evaluated in terms of performance and flexibility under changing conditions. With this new tool, organizational strategists can systematically analyze and compare alternative arrangements of electronic channels with an emphasis on deploying interorganizational processes and control systems that synchronize activities across the trans-organizational interface.

This paper models the effects of increasing information technology on organizational boundaries. The effects of information systems on structure are analysed by bringing to bear transaction cost, organizational learning and information uncertainty viewpoints. A model of structural choice is developed. From this model we develop propositions regarding the relation between information technology and changes in organizational structure. The model suggests that the effect of increasing information technology is to drive firms through a cyclic three stage lifecycle that alternately drives firms toward market and hierarchical structures, resulting in heterogeneous network boundaries. 2

In this paper we present a role based approach to the analysis of computer-based

An effective Decision Support System (DSS) should help its users improve decision-making in complex, information-rich, dynamic environments. We present a feature gap analysis of current decision support technologies, and we identify a set of DSS Desiderata, properties that can contribute both effectiveness and flexibility to users in such environments. We show that there is a gap between the features provided by current DSS technologies and the DSS Desiderata we aim for. We present a design-science approach that extends the boundaries of human decisionmakers by creating a new and innovative artifact called “evaluator service networks ” at the confluence of people, organizations, and technology. Our artifact enables users to compose decision behaviors from separate, configurable components, and allows dynamic construction of analysis and modeling tools from small, single-purpose evaluator services. The result is a network that can easily be configured to test hypotheses and analyze the impact of various choices for elements of decision processes. We have implemented and tested this design in an interactive version of the MinneTAC trading agent, an agent designed for the Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management. We present an example of an evaluator service network that determines sales prices in a rich, dynamic trading environment. Additionally we describe visual interface elements that allow users to see and manipulate the configuration of the network, and to construct economic dashboards that can display the current and historical state of any node in the network.