Binary trading relations and the limits of EDI standards: the Procrustean bed of standards

J Damsgaard and D Truex

European Journal of Information Systems, 2000, vol. 9, issue 3, 173-188

Abstract: This paper provides a critical examination of electronic data interchange (EDI) standards and their application in different types of trading relationships. It argues that EDI standards are not directly comparable to more stable sets of technical standards in that they are dynamically tested and negotiated in use with each trading exchange. It takes the position that EDI standards are an emergent language form and must mean different things at the institutional and local levels. Using the lens of emergent linguistic analysis it shows how the institutional and local levels must always be distinct and yet can coexist. EDI standards can never represent the creation of an ‘Esperanto of institutional communication’. Instead we believe that standards must be developed such that they support and accommodate general basic grammatical forms that can be customised to individual needs. The analysis is supported by a set of exemplary cases.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000368 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:9:y:2000:i:3:p:173-188

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjis20

DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000368

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Information Systems is currently edited by Par Agerfalk

More articles in European Journal of Information Systems from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().