Abstract:

Based on a review of two existing frameworks for business transactions, a complementary approach, based on the EDI measurement scheme developed by Massetti et al., (1996), is presented in this paper. Existing frameworks tend to neglect the information exchange aspect of coordination by focusing on phases in business transactions. The complementary approach considers coordination of information exchange from four different aspects: volume, breadth, diversity, and depth of transactions. These four aspects constitute a scheme of the information flow throughout transactions that connect the external information environment with the internal information infrastructure of business partners. The research reported in this paper is beside the review of existing frameworks also empirical. Three case studies of different dyadic relationship settings were conducted in order to test the complementary approach suggested in this paper.