Abstract:

Electronic procurement (e-procurement) systems represent an application of e commerce technologies in support of an organization’s purchasing activities. Existing e-business literature provides a rich description of the benefit experiences of many organizations which have implemented these systems. Little guidance is however available for the senior management of organizations (which are contemplating possible adoption of an e-procurement system) to help them predict the likely benefits they can possibly gain from the introduction of these systems. We argue that it is not pragmatic to assume that organizations intending to introduce the same e-procurement solution would always experience a somewhat similar set of benefits. This is because the attainment of benefits can be largely influenced by the specific type of business relationship that an organization seeks to establish with its suppliers using an eprocurement system, which in turn, affects how the system is implemented. In this paper, we report on the development of a model which identifies four types of buyer-supplier relationships that can possibly be sought by organizations while deciding to introduce an e-procurement system. We further suggest that these relationships are associated with different types of benefits which organizations can expect to experience from the implementation of e-procurement systems. Finally, some implications for management are highlighted and the current status of our ongoing research project involving a preliminary empirical evaluation of the model is reported.