Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 15.1. ISBL-English comparison
Language aspect
English
ISBL
Lexicon
Open-ended, additive
Restricted, predefined
Syntax
Enculturated, variable
Prescribed, rigid
Context
Uncontrolled
Controlled
Semantics
Variable in context
Invariant
Pragmatics
A reasonable natural language definition of a customer is 'one who currently purchases
anywhere; a buyer, purchaser' (Onions, 1973). Within this broad interpretation, the
extension of the concept to encompass specific individuals can occur in a variety of
ways, which can include personal familiarity, face recognition, showing a receipt from
a previous transaction, or a conversation in which the person simply reveals an intention
to buy. Both the customer and the vendor have the full resources of natural language
to use in their attempt to establish a workable relationship. Such interactions are intrins-
ically messy, even in a highly structured bureaucracy, where the use of natural language
provides a means by which the participants can, if they so choose, step outside any
predefined scripts.
The definition of customer in the ISBL is quite different, being in practice something
like 'an entity characterised by the following mandatory attributes', where the mandatory
attributes might include identification number (valid) + account number (valid) +
credit card number (valid) + credit status (valid). More to the point, the adopted defin-
ition is designed to leave no room for debate on terminological grounds; a person wishing
to be identified as a customer must satisfy the validity requirements no matter what the
previous status of his or her relationship with the organisation behind the autonomous
system. It may seem redundant to stress the differences in the two conceptions in this
way, but the free use of terms like 'customer' or 'client' or 'product' in published liter-
ature can help to conceal the full implications of the distinction being drawn here.
A major factor propelling development of the ISBL is that many business activities are
supported by information content that tends to be broadly similar across organisations,
and it has been recognised that very real gains in efficiency can be made through the
general adoption of standardised definitions (Threlkel and Kavan, 1999). Thus, although
there may be subtle differences in how different organisations interpret the meaning of
the various business concepts involved, the generic assumption is that there should be
sufficient commonality of interpretation to make the prospect of coming up with a
standard definition feasible as well as economically appealing. It is, in fact, the possibil-
ities for standardisation that have driven a range of systems integration initiatives in-
cluding B2B procurement exchanges, EDI-based inter-organisational systems, and various
types of data sharing arrangements. Progress can be difficult to achieve in practice
(Goodhue et al., 1992), but is nevertheless being made on several fronts (Wyzalek, 2000)
to the extent that the emergence of a standard or 'authorised' version of the ISBL is be-
coming probable rather than possible.
Intrinsic to use
None
Actor network theory
The closest parallel to the ISBL concept is to be found in what is now generally termed
actor network theory (or ANT), where both human and non-human entities are assigned
roles in the constitution and functioning of a network (Callon and Latour, 1981; Callon,
1989). Callon (1989), for instance, includes the Renault car-making firm, a new kind of
fuel cell, consumers and engineers as components of a network concerned with the
proposed introduction of an electric car into the French car market. ANT has itself been
proposed as a promising theoretical perspective for IS researchers (Underwood, 2002).
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