ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS: THE EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE AND THE ELECTRONIC MARKETS HYPOTHESIS

摘要

Early research on the organization of economic activities focused on the tradeoffs between in-house production and the outsourcing of goods. The Electronic Markets Hypothesis (EMH) extended this analysis to IT-based relationships and predicts an evolution from tightly-integrated commerce (electronic hierarchies) to electronic markets. Alternatively, proponents of the ihmove to the middleln hypothesis believe that firms will move to outsource, but from fewer suppliers with whom they enter into long-term partnerships. Finally, the All-in-One markets hypothesis seeks to integrate both ends of the EMH into one environment combining multiple trading mechanisms. While the standardization of IT has been named as an enabler for all of these effects, the existence and effect of differing types of technological standards has not been adequately studied. A collection of short, descriptive case studies of the use of XML technologies by organizations is being prepared. The case studies focus on the exchange of digital products in information-rich industries and seek to gather evidence for the evolution proposed by the EMH and for effects suggested by the All-in-One markets hypothesis.