The impact of barriers and benefits of e-procurement on its adoption decision: An empirical analysis

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the barriers and benefits of e-procurement systems on the e-procurement adoption decision. An empirical analysis is performed for a retail store chain which operates in book and stationery sector in Turkey. Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) technique is applied to the selected barriers and benefits to determine their contextual relationships. Inadequate IT infrastructure of suppliers/business partners is found to be the most important barrier in the adoption of e-procurement systems. On the other hand, the most significant benefit is determined as integrated information sharing. The barriers and benefits, which have high driving power and the capability to influence the other drivers, are then integrated into the structural equation model. The results denote that barriers (benefits) of e-procurement systems have negative (positive) effect on the e-procurement adoption decision for the company. In addition, it is found that the effect of benefits on the adoption decision is higher than that of the barriers. Thus, based on this analysis, it would be beneficial for the company to adopt the e-procurement system.