Factors affecting the adoption and diffusion of XML and Web services standards for E-business systems

Minder Chen, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences & MIS

3/14/2008
(Original Publish Date: 11/25/2002)

Integration is a very important issue in e-business systems integration. There are three basic mechanisms to integrate diverse applications: data interchange, application program interfaces (API), and shared repositories. Standards and standardization efforts play important roles in all three areas. XML is a standard for defining data interchange standards. Web services are a set ofstandards for calling remote procedures over the Internet. UDDI and other e-business registries are examples ofshared repositories. This paper discusses the XML and Web Services (including UDDI) standard-related technologies in the context ofe-business systems. A technology adoption life cycle model is adapted to analyse various stages of standards adoption. Organizations that tend to adopt e-business standards in each stage are identified. Based on our study of e-business standards and research ofrelevant literatures, several factors that affect the adoption decision of e-business standards are identified. The implications of these factors are discussed. Two case studies ofthe implementation ofe-business standards are presented. Further studies of how standards may affect the success of e-business strategies and how companies should evaluate and implement e-business standards are proposed.