Organizational Assimilation of Electronic Procurement Innovations

We investigate the assimilation of electronic procurement innovations (EPIs) and its impact on procurement productivity in buyer organizations. We identify online reverse auctions, electronic catalog management, electronic order fulfillment, and electronic payment and settlement as moderate complements for the performance of the procurement process. We develop a theoretical model that is informed by the literature on innovation assimilation and by structuration theory to explain the aggregated assimilation of EPIs. Our empirical study is based on survey data collected about EMS from 166 buyer firms. Based on our analysis, we isolate the organizational, technological, and interorganizational factors that shape the meta-structures for the aggregated assimilation of EMS. Our results also provide evidence of a substantial impact of the assimilation of these innovations on procurement productivity. Our post hoc analysis provides insights on differences across stages and across EMS on the factors and meta-structures that enable assimilation.