Article
Distrust Issues in Business-to-Business E-Procurement Decisions
Journal of Enterprise Information Management
(2019)
Abstract
Purpose – Despite the important role of distrust in predicting the intention to use, existing literature has not
studied the impact of distrust on the buyer’s integration with suppliers and their e-procurement usage in the
B2B context, creating major gaps in the e-procurement theory. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gaps in
the literature by examining the role and impact of distrust in the e-procurement context.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a web-based survey of purchasing
professionals in the USA. ANOVA was used to compare the level of distrust among companies. In addition,
the measurement model and hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modeling method.
Findings – Empirical findings indicate if buyers have uncertainty or negative expectation on the reliability
and capability of the supplier in e-procurement systems, they would tend to hesitate to use e-procurement
for purchasing. Furthermore, distrust also inhibits buyers from strengthening the supplier integration
through sharing operational and logistics information and collaborating in new product development and
purchasing process.
Research limitations/implications – This paper discovers the vital role of distrust in the e-procurement
context. Distrust has a significant impact on a company’s cooperation and commitment with business
partners. Additionally, to improve the supplier integration, it is important not only to use e-procurement
applications but also to have a mechanism to lower the buyers’ distrust level in e-procurement systems.
Practical implications – Realizing the important role of distrust, e-procurement vendors could improve the
supplier selection process by allowing buyers to review the supplier’s reliability and capability, and to interact
with the supplier before making any online purchase. Vendors could also build a better supplier verification
system and collaborative mechanism to reduce buyers’ distrust issues.
Originality/value – Despite the important role of distrust in predicting the intention to use, existing
literature has not studied the impact of distrust on the buyer’s integration with suppliers and their
e-procurement usage in the B2B context, creating major gaps in the e-procurement theory. This paper fills the
gaps in the literature by examining the role and impact of distrust in the e-procurement context.
Keywords
- E-procurement,
- Business-to-business,
- Distrust,
- Information sharing,
- Supplier integration,
- Buyer supplier relationship
Disciplines
Publication Date
2019
Citation Information
Dothang Truong. "Distrust Issues in Business-to-Business E-Procurement Decisions" Journal of Enterprise Information Management Vol. 32 Iss. 6 (2019) p. 1071 - 1088 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/dtruong/51/