Towards a B2B E-Commerce Evaluation Management Model to Assess Organizational Drivers in Hospitals

Effective utilization of business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce (e-commerce) in hospitals may lead to many benefits such as increased accessibility to healthcare providers, improved process efficiency, enhanced quality of healthcare services, increased responses to changes, decreased scheduling conflicts, and reduction in administrative costs. However, many hospitals have found that they have not yet fully reaped the expected benefits from their B2B e-commerce investments. Despite this, there has not been much discussion in the literature with respect to the relationship between the organizational drivers on B2B e-commerce benefits for hospitals. Hence, a mixed-method of case study and survey was conducted to examine the relationships between B2B e-commerce benefits, IT evaluation resources allocation, IT investment evaluation methodologies, IT maturity, and user information requirements determination process. A B2B e-commerce evaluation management model was developed to test these relationships. The results provided empirical evidence in support of our proposed model and revealed that hospitals’ IT evaluation resources allocation practices mediated the relationship of IT investment evaluation methodologies, IT maturity, and user information requirements determination process with B2B e-commerce benefits. The results also showed that the level of IT maturity had a significant impact on the adoption of IT investment evaluation methodologies

Research on the Application of E-commerce to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): the Case of India

SMEs account for a large proportion and play an important role in the development of each country in the world, including India. The globalization will bring many advantages for enterprises however SMEs will face fierce competition at the local, national and International level. In order to maintain and promote the important role of SMEs in the context of increased competition, SMEs have to change and adopt new technologies. E-commerce and digital technologies are bringing opportunities to help SMEs improve their competitiveness, narrow the gap with big enterprises thanks to their fairness and flexibility of the digital business environment.       According to UNIDO (2017), India is one of the countries successfully applying e-commerce to SMEs. Contributing to this success is the important role of the Indian government. Therefore, this paper focuses on researching the application of e-commerce to SMEs in terms of the role of government in promoting and creating an ecosystem for SMEs and e-commerce development

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

Post-implementation analysis of a B2B e-marketplace

The advent of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Marketplaces gave the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) firms the opportunity to conduct more efficient and effective commercial interaction with their supply chain partners. Despite the large body of literature in generic Information Systems (IS) domain, there has been a very little work done to-date to investigate the B2B e-Marketplace systems implementation by AEC firms. By adopting a case study research method with a longitudinal approach to data collection, the study on which this paper is based explored the challenges in the adoption and on-going use of a large UK contractor firm’s eMarketplace systems from the perspective of end-users. Utilising a well-established theoretical model from the IS body of knowledge, the analysis revealed several important challenges related to system (functionality and usability), information (content quality) and service (training and support) dimensions of e-Marketplace systems implementation. Through incorporating the case study findings to the conceptual model, the study offers several suggestions for AEC firms to take on board during implementation of the B2B e-Marketplace systems

25 Years of Research into the Management of eTechnology Projects

Over the last 25 years, information technology has evolved from intra-organizational systems to inter-organizational electronic technologies (eTechnology) that span organizations and industries and to extra-organizational systems delivered via the Internet, which involve individuals rather than organizationss. Project management research has largely sought reasons for project outcomes (Factor Research), and considered projects either as a process (Engineering Tradition) or as a form of organization (Social Science Tradition). This meta-analysis of 284 research papers identified key findings that provide insights and guidance for eTechnology project management in different technical and organizational environments. As the management context of eTechnology projects changed and project implementation moved beyond the control of a single organization, research focus shifted to examining topics within inter-organizational environments. Although some shift in focus occurred towards the social aspects of eTechnology project management, there was comparatively little use of multiple levels of analysis or interdisciplinary research within the Social Science Tradition

Examining the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Strategies on Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world as many patients are looking to access healthcare services that are not available to them in their home countries. Many hospitals and healthcare centers are now offering numerous products and services in order to fully reap the benefits from it. However, little research which examines the effects of relationship marketing on the medical tourism exists. Hence, the aims of this study are to: (1) examine the relationship between the relationship marketing strategies and the medical tourism industry; and (2) help medical tourism operators to identify some of the key issues that exist within the industry. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten senior Taiwanese tour guides who had extensive experience in dealing with the medical tourism industry. The results indicate that relationship marketing was one of the crucial factors which had an impact on the willingness of tour guides to make necessary travel arrangements for medical tourists. The environment of health examination center, the ability of its doctors to diagnose a patient’s condition, and the professional image of its doctors could also affect the effectiveness of the relationship marketing on medical tourism as well as the efforts in arranging a follow-up visit to the health examination center. The findings can provide senior executives of health examination centers and travel agencies with a more realistic insight in dealing with issues and challenges arising from the medical tourism

Technology Fears: Barriers to the Adoption of Business-to-Business E-Commerce

This research presents a qualitative study of the difficulties encountered in the adoption of B2B (business-to- business) electronic commerce. It is concerned with an initiative that was intended to help SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) in Singapore adopt an Internet-based electronic marketplace. Drawing on the theory of technological frames, the study traces the case over 13 months and analyzes the early adoption problem in three time periods. Consideration is given to why the technology provider failed to gain the commitment of adopters even though all of the favorable conditions were present. Inductively, the results indicate four key issues that explain the adoption difficulties: lack of familiarity (with B2B e-commerce), risk aversion, lack of trust (among trading partners), and incongruent cultural practice. The results suggest that unless the technology fears of adopters are acknowledged, the technologistís well-intended programs may be met by adoptersí negative responses and may lead to the failure of IOS (inter-organizational systems) adoption. The proposed conceptual basis has implications for both research and practice as enterprises are rapidly venturing into the evolving forms of B2B e-commerce in Asia

Does Digital Transformation of the Australian Healthcare supply chain improve clinical safety?

Digital transformation of the healthcare supply chain has the potential to improve clinical safety. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed healthcare supply chain deficiencies through shortages of Personal Protective Equipment and vaccines. Many healthcare supply chain processes are manual due to complexity, costs and lack of solutions and current capability to benefit from digitization, use of unique identifiers and aggregated data. This study follows the implementation of a digital tool to enable electronic procurement between healthcare providers and their suppliers. An artifact (Clinical Safety Evaluation Model) is under development to measure the key clinical safety indicators both pre and post digital transformation of the healthcare supply chain for small to medium healthcare providers. The results of this study will produce an empirical evaluation model for use by healthcare service providers. The findings are expected to confirm that digital transformation of the healthcare supply chain improves clinical safety

Strategies for E-Commerce Platform Adoption in the Manufacturing Sector in Western India

While 95% of Indian SME leaders have not adopted an e-commerce platform, the few SME leaders having adopted such platforms reported 64% higher sales and 65% higher profits. The purpose of this multi-case study, guided by the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, was to explore the strategies that Indian SME leaders used to adopt e-commerce platforms to expand their businesses. Data for this study emerged from conducting face-to-face, semistructured interviews with 3 SME leaders who operated in the manufacturing industry in western India. The data analysis process included validating, coding, interpreting, and summarizing data and generating themes. Methodological triangulation of data obtained from interviews, observations, and document review resulted in 4 major themes: leveraging the marketplace model, dealing with tedious governmental requirements, finding well-trained employees, and handling fraudulent product returns. The study results may contribute to positive social change in western India by generating greater employment opportunities and increasing e-commerce literacy among online shoppers. Wider e-commerce adoption by SME leaders can generate a large number of employment opportunities for people living in western India resulting in a better quality of life. Increased use of e-commerce activities among online shoppers can result in higher awareness about online frauds, identity theft, malware threats, and overall online security

Extent of E-Procurement Usage: An Empirical Study of Small and Medium Sized New Zealand Manufacturing Businesses

This paper describes a project which aims to investigate the extent of e-procurement usage at the organizational level and to examine the key factors that influence the extent of e-procurement usage in New Zealand (NZ) small and medium enterprises (SMEs). An integrated model is developed based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework and Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory. It is hypothesized that the extent of e-procurement usage is influenced by the technological (i.e. relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity), organizational (i.e. top management support and employees’ knowledge), and environmental (i.e. external pressure) contexts. This study employs a quantitative research methodology using a cross-sectional survey approach and a qualitative analysis of respondents’ free comments incorporated at the end of each construct of the survey. The model is tested using data from 120 senior managers. Our results demonstrate that relative advantage, employees’ knowledge, and external pressure have a significant influence on the extent of e-procurement usage