Assessment of SOA Potentials in B2B Networks - Concept and Application to German Used Car Distribution Networks

Although service-oriented architecture (SOA) is supposed to increase external integration capabilities, it is mostly applied within company boundaries. How companies should apply SOA to improve their inter-organizational relationships is not, as yet, well understood. Although there are several examples of service-oriented concepts in the B2B context, there has been little research in which the different facets of SOA application are analyzed in inter-organizational relationships and B2B networks. This research aims at filling this gap. First, it identifies SOA potentials from literature and classifies them into a conceptual model for B2B networks. Second, it applies the conceptual model to used car distribution as a real-world scenario. This real-world example demonstrates that a SOA business case is highly situational and that key SOA capabilities need to be mapped to the specific industry context.