2.2.2 The E -Technology
Perspective Theory
E-procurement enables customers and suppliers to increase
networking channel through the internet in terms of production planning, demand
management and inventory management, (Lee et al, 2003). E- Procurement
facilitates frictionless procurement paradigm (Brousseau, 2000). The research
by Min and Galle (2002) recognizes the extensive nature of e-procurement which
refers to e-procurement as a business-to-business (B2B) purchasing practice
that utilizes electronic procurement to identify potential sources of supply to
purchase goods and services, interact with suppliers and transfer payment.
The internet has been widely adopted by companies with the aim
of improving organizational performances both in internal processes and in
external processes (Barratt &Rosdahl, 2002). Despite the fact that
business-to-business (B2B) trade has enjoyed a longer existence online than
business-to-consumer (B2C), the benefits of e-procurement in a B2B setting are
significant (Min & Galle, 2002).
Previous studies have claimed that e-procurement has become
the catalyst that allows companies to integrate their supply chains from
end-to-end from supplier to the end user with shared performance, availability
and pricing data that allows buyers and suppliers to work to optimum and
mutually beneficial schedules and prices (Morris et al, 2000).
Usually companies adopt e-procurement systems in order to
manage the purchase products and services (Min & Galle, 2002). In summary
it has been noted that the influence of e-procurement adoption remains in a
formative stage, falling short of the type of e-collaboration and e-sourcing
suggested by (Morris et al, 2000). Common e-procurement tools are direct
auctions and online catalogues where reverse auctions remain unpopular with
sellers (Basheka & Bisangabasaija, 2010).
2.2.3 Resource - Based
Theory
The request for Information Technology has long been a central
tenet of the field of supply chain management and procurement (Pressutti,
2003).
Within this field, resource-based theory (RBT) has emerged as
a promising new framework for analyzing the sustainability and sources of
Information Technology (Baily, 2008). According to RBT, Information Technology
measured as economic rent derives from strategic resources (Caridi et al,
2004). Such Information Technology is sustainable to the extent that the
resources on which it is based are inimitable, rare, valuable, and
non-substitutable (Bales & Fearon, 2006). Further, RBT rests on the
premises that resources controlled by organization are relatively immobile and
heterogeneous (Pearcy &Guinipero, 2008). The imperfect mobility of
resources (including inimitability and no substitutability) is due to a variety
of isolation mechanisms (Roth, 2001) which include co-specialization of assets
(Teo & Benbasat, 2003) unique historical conditions (Berger &
Calabrese, 2005), causal ambiguity (Liao et al, 2007), social complexity, and
tacit knowledge and skills (Puschmann& Alt, 2005).
Given that organizational resource-based theory and learning
both seek the objective of sustaining competitive advantage as far as
information technology is concerned, it seems logical for organizational
learning to be identified as a strategic resource within the resource-based
view. Organization often derive Information Technology from resources (e.g.
capabilities and new knowledge) which have been developed based on lessons from
previous experiences and time(Puschmann & Alt, 2005).
Information Technology derived from such resources might be
sustainable because attempt by other organization to duplicate them do not have
the necessary the learning capability, organizational knowledge or the time
required to accumulate them. Given the dynamic nature of IT, it is believed
that the sustainability of such an advantage must be defined in dynamic and
time sensitive terms(Puschmann & Alt, 2005).
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