Trust or dependancy? major influence on e-procurement adoption decisions in supply chain relationships

Abstract

This paper discussed the influence of two factors, which is the level of trust and the level of dependency on the e-procurement adoption decisions between supply chain partners in a supply chain relationship. Literature related to trust theory and power theory was reviewed in search for an attributes of each factors that could have an influence on the e-procurement adoption decisions. Literature suggests that trust and dependency did play a major role in adoption decisions but none have ever tried to discover which factor is more important especially in today’s competitive business environment. A theoretical framework is then developed based on prior research on trust and dependency in various e-business and e-commerce applications. Implications of both factors to supply chain partners and also the direction for future research within this area are then discussed.