E-procurement quality from an internal customer perspective: Construct development, refinement, and replication using a mixed methods approach

Purpose Despite significant investment in e-procurement by many organisations, perceived failings in the quality of such technologies and of the support provided to use them – termed here e-procurement quality – continue to generate resistance from internal customers who must assimilate e-procurement into their daily routines. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of e-procurement quality from an internal customer perspective and to develop, refine, and validate construct measures. Design/methodology/approach Research was undertaken in the UK and the Netherlands incorporating a literature review, a qualitative study with 58 interviews, a quantitative study with 274 survey respondents, and a replication study with 154 survey respondents. Findings Analysis reveals that e-procurement quality comprises five universally applicable dimensions: processing, content, usability, professionalism, and training. A sixth dimension, specification, appears to be applicable, but context specific. Originality/value The study represents one of the most extensive investigations of e-procurement quality to date and is the first to examine its underlying dimensional structure. The multi-item scales developed and validated using a mixed-methods process are suitable for theory building and testing, as well as providing useful diagnostic value to practitioners. </jats:sec

The impact of user-perceived e-procurement quality on system and contract compliance

PurposeWhilst e‐procurement has significant potential to reduce the purchasing costs of an organisation, the realisation of these savings requires user compliance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which user‐perceived e‐procurement quality (EPQ) (operationalised through the dimensions of professionalism, processing, training, specification, content, and usability) influences both system and contract compliance.Design/methodology/approachUser perceptions of EPQ were examined in four UK organisations using survey data from 274 respondents.FindingsStrong evidence was found of a positive relationship between user‐perceived EPQ and both system and contract compliance. System compliance was most strongly influenced by professionalism and content dimensions, whilst contract compliance was most strongly influenced by processing, specification, and content dimensions.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from e‐procurement users in four organisations, which may limit the extent to which findings can be generalised.Practical implicationsUser perceptions of e‐procurement provision significantly influence system and contract adoption. Practitioners should pay attention to management of different dimensions of perceived quality as they may have different effects on both contract and system compliance.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to empirically assess the relationship between user‐perceived EPQ and compliance. Its findings challenge the assumption that the monopolistic dynamics common within internal services, such as e‐procurement provision, are sufficient to ensure compliance. Dissatisfied individuals invariably find ways to circumvent mandatory systems and contracts.</jats:sec

Examining the antecedents of the Technology Acceptance Model within e-procurement

Purpose Despite the widespread organisational adoption of e-procurement systems, we continue to witness disappointing performance outcomes from their implementation. This can be explained largely by the failure of many organisations to translate the initial adoption decision, made at an organisational level, into individual-level acceptance of e-procurement by an organisation’s employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key antecedents of the technology acceptance model (TAM) for employees expected to use e-procurement systems in their day-to-day activities. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors apply and extend the TAM to examine the factors that influence the acceptance of e-procurement by individual employees. The authors’ focus is on the potential role of user-perceived e-procurement quality dimensions as the antecedents to the TAM’s cognitive mechanisms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The structural equation model uses the survey data collected from 139 e-procurement users at a university in the Netherlands. Findings The results confirm the core TAM relationships within an e-procurement context. Extending the TAM model to explore the antecedents, the authors find that the e-procurement quality dimensions of processing, usability, and professionalism impact the levels of individual employee e-procurement acceptance. Interestingly, the system-level dimensions (processing and usability) appear to play a greater role than the support dimensions (professionalism) in these cognitive mechanisms. Practical implications The findings indicate that the need for e-procurement training and on-going support may be lessened by initial effective design covering system navigation and system usability and by ensuring that an e-procurement system has expedient information and product flows between the buyer and supplier. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the TAM and, more critically, its antecedents within an e-procurement context. It is also the first to empirically validate this extended model. Finally, by shifting the focus from the more typical organisational-level adoption to an individual employee acceptance unit of analysis, the authors provide a better understanding of how organisations can gain the most from investments in e-procurement and other similar e-supply chain management technologies. </jats:sec

From sustainability commitment to performance:The role of intra- and inter- firm collaborative capabilities in the upstream supply chain

International audienceOrganisations increasingly see sustainability as an important element of their business strategies, and the role of purchasing and supply functions is critical in translating sustainability commitment into performance. Yet, the impact of sustainability commitment on purchasing processes and routines, as well as the effect of such capabilities on performance, remains empirically under-explored. From a Resource-Based perspective, we argue that commitment to sustainability leads purchasing and supply functions to develop intra-and inter-firm collaborative capabilities, and that in turn these capabilities deliver improved performance. Based on survey data from 383 procurement executives in ten European and North American countries, we use structural equation modelling to empirically test our hypotheses. Our results provide strong support for the hypothesised links between sustainability commitment and both intra-and inter-firm collaborative capabilities; and between inter-firm collaborative capabilities and environmental and social, and cost performance. Conversely, our data do not support the hypothesised links between intra-firm collaborative capabilities and both aspects of performance. In our discussion, we reflect on both confirmatory and conflicting findings in relation to theory and practice, before examining the study's limitations and opportunities for future research

Implementing supply practice at Bridgend Engine Plant: the influence of institutional and strategic choice perspectives,

International audienceThis paper investigates the stalled adoption of a supplier park at Bridgend Engine Plant in the UK. It starts from the position that not all firms can or should implement the same set of practices. Critical incident technique and semi-structured interviews over five years were used to understand the influence of institutional and strategic choices during the implementation of a supplier park. A conceptual framework was developed to incorporate practices broadly associated with parks, i.e. improving supply stability, supply coordination, redefining the OEM/supplier boundary and enhancing interaction between co-located firms. The findings demonstrate a limited implementation of supply practices at Bridgend with only one component supplier brought onto the site. The original plan was to create a supplier park that would "grow" to an industrial park, creating an automotive sector in the area. However, a combination of operational, processual, and contextual factors have conspired against the plan. The combination of a broad range of theoretical and practical elements means there are associated discussions that could be more fully explored. Condensing the interview notes has resulted in the researchers' own interpretation of events becoming a significant reality filter. Whilst single case studies raise inevitable concerns over comparability, our focus is on theoretical generalizability through richness of empirical data. As firms continue to use best practice as a core ingredient of strategy, researchers must respond with robust theoretical concepts explaining adoption and implementation. This paper integrates disparate perspectives across multiple levels in order to build a richer and more believable picture of a stalled initiative. Three key conclusions can be drawn: the contingent nature of "bundles of practice" implications of political ambiguity over the efficiency argument and the effect of isomorphic or bandwagon responses by firms

Tools without skills:Exploring the moderating effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between e-purchasing tools and category performance

Purpose – The paper examines the moderating role of a purchasing function’s absorptive capacity (AC) on the relationship between the use of electronic purchasing tools and category level purchasing performance. The authors argue that an e-purchasing tool may not in itself positively influence performance unless combined with AC as a human interface to maximise its information and transactional improvement potential. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data collected from 297 procurement executives of large companies in ten countries are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical moderated regression. Findings – The results demonstrate few significant direct effects of e-purchasing tools on category performance. All performance measures studied are enhanced when dimensions of AC and their interactions with the e-purchasing tools are added. Specifically, buyer competence, manager competence and communications climate have performance-enhancing effects. In some cases, AC on its own appears to increase performance more than e-tools. Originality/value – This paper is the first to study the moderating effects of AC on the relationship between e-purchasing tool usage and category performance. Its findings support the view that simply implementing technology does not lead to performance improvements, but that a human interface is required to maximise the information and transactional improvement potential of e-purchasing tools

A comprehensive assessment of measurement equivalence in operations management

This paper provides a comprehensive framework for treating equivalence both prior to data collection and during subsequent analyses, and assesses the extent to which equivalence is considered in survey research in six leading empirical Operations Management (OM) journals (Decision Sciences, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Operations Management, Management Science and Production and Operations Management). Measurement equivalence of latent variables in survey data is an important condition that should be met in order to meaningfully pool and/or compare data stemming from apparently heterogeneous sub-groups. We assess 465 survey articles from a six-year period from 2006 to 2011 and document these articles in relation to the four main stages of our comprehensive framework: identifying sources of heterogeneity; maximising equivalence prior to data collection; testing measurement equivalence after data collection; and dealing with partial and non-equivalence. We conclude that pooling of data from heterogeneous sub-groups is common practice in OM, but that awareness and testing of equivalence remains limited. Given these findings, we further elaborate the best practices detected in those few OM studies that do address equivalence in some way. We conclude that to improve the quality of OM survey research, authors, editors and reviewers should pay greater attention to equivalence, and we provide a pragmatic checklist of measurement equivalence issues across the four stages