- Title
- The antecedents and consequences of electronic procurement (EP) usage intensity within B2B relationships in Australia
- Creator
- Shirani, Mohsen
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The adoption, usage, and value creation of electronic business (e-business) has received wide attention within the information systems (IS), marketing and management disciplines (Ciganek, Haseman, & Ramamurthy, 2014; Hung, Lin, Tai, Ho, & Jou, 2014; Voola, Casimir, Carlson, & Anushree Agnihotri, 2012). It has been acknowledged that the connections between information system infrastructures, such as e-procurement (EP) technology, and other infrastructures could facilitate the development of more competitive organisations (Vaast & Walsham, 2009). Considering this point, the application of information technology within the procurement process (i.e., EP) could be considered as a novel approach to providing value and performance improvements for firms by using IT resources in supply chain management (Dong, Xu, & Zhu, 2009). The expanding business environment, combined with complex and growing supply chains, have resulted in more demand for electronic communication capabilities within business-to-business (B2B) collaborations (Gillai & Yu, 2013). Despite this global growth, Australian firms have been slow to embrace B2B e-commerce compared to most developed countries (Econsultancy, 2014). According to Econsultancy (2014), only 10% of Australian manufacturing and wholesale distribution businesses use B2B transactional websites and there is great potential for organisations to use B2B commerce in Australia to improve their competitiveness. In responding to this issue, a number of academic works have been dedicated to understanding e-business adoption and usage by firms. Whilst this prior research has improved our initial understanding of the mechanisms driving e-business adoption and usage, there is still a lack of empirical evidence in the literature which examines e-procurement usage and its influence on firms’ performance variables, namely their procurement process performance (PPP). Whilst past research examining e-business technologies has found that e-business usage influences firms’ performances, including an effect on procurement, sales and internal operations efficiency (Theodosiou & Katsikea, 2012; Voola et al., 2012; Zhu & Kraemer, 2005), research has yet to empirically investigate this linkage in the EP context, and whether EP usage impacts on the benefits for firms. Therefore, the first purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which important antecedents explain the usage intensity of EP within organisations in the Australian B2B marketplace. The second purpose of this research is to investigate the impacts of EP usage intensity on an organisation’s PPP in the study context. The research method proposed to address the research questions is a cross-sectional survey of B2B firms across a range of industries and firm sizes in Australia. The contributions of the proposed research will be both theoretical and practical, by extending the understanding of the driving forces of EP usage intensity and its role in influencing PPP. This study contributes to a better understanding of EP usage intensity in the B2B concept within Australian firms by providing a new and robust conceptual model based on a combination of the TOE framework with Institutional theory and RBV theory. The TOE framework helps in the categorisation of resources and Institutional theory strengthens the environmental aspects. Most current studies based on the TOE framework examine the influences of factors separately. While using a second-order model in this study, researchers and practitioners may directly compare the effects and find the relative importance of each aspect of the influences on EP usage intensity. In addition, the RBV theory provides the theoretical rationale for linking the technological, organisational and environmental aspects through the EP usage intensity to the PPP. In doing so, the study will contribute insights for managers, policy makers and industry associations in leveraging EP technologies to achieve improved performances for firms.
- Subject
- e-business; business-to-business; EP technology; usage intensity
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1387374
- Identifier
- uon:32597
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Mohsen Shirani
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 245 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |