Analysis of the divergence between theory and practice

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: This management report identifies and analyses the major inefficiencies in the altering strategies of Covisint the former proclaimed biggest electronic B2B-marketplace in the world from its inauguration until the present day. Covisint was founded by a consortium of automotive OEMs, i.e. General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and DaimlerChrysler in the beginning of 2000. This electronic B2B-platform represented the intention to establish an industry-wide standard that every automotive company should be forced to use if it wants to generate business in future. Moreover, Covisint represented the ambitious vision of the Big Three to put their automotive supply chains on the Internet in order to improve their process efficiency in various ways. At that point of time many writers already called Covisint the third revolution in the automotive industry (Industrial-IT 2000, p. 13). As this chosen prominent example will show, many managerial failures have been made causing the marketplaces continuous low performance. The management report mainly is based on 34 interviews conducted with automotive industry managers and experts from spring until autumn 2003. The extensive empirical research should allow obtaining an up-to-date and profound view of the interrelated inefficiencies in Covisints strategies. The crucial issues on every of the detected three major strategies as standardised electronic B2B-marketplace for the global automotive industry (1. strategy), as application service provider/ASP (2. strategy) and as messaging- and communication-hub (3. strategy) will be revealed, differentiated and critically discussed. The manifold and interrelated reasons for failures of each strategy will be analysed. Finally, in order to avoid the repetition of mistakes made in the past and to improve Covisints future performance, recommendations derived from the analysis are given. Zusammenfassung: Der vorliegende Management Report identifiziert und analysiert die bedeutendsten Ineffizienzen in den wechselnden Strategien von Covisint dem ehemals proklamierten größten elektronischen B2B-Markplatz der Welt von dessen Gründung an bis zum Jahr 2004. Covisint wurde Anfang des Jahres 2000 von einem Konsortium der größten weltweiten Automobilhersteller (OEM) General Motors, Ford Motor Company und DaimlerChrysler gegründet. Covisint als elektronische B2B-Plattform repräsentierte die Absicht einen industrieweiten Standard für [...]