The Effects of Process Characteristics on the Value of B2B E-Procurement

Even as more organizations are moving towards implementing Web-based B2B procurement solutions, they are unsure of the real benefits of the Web. In other words, what is the value of B2B e-procurement to an organization and how to measure this value? What factors affect this value? In this paper, we discuss an evaluation framework to determine the value of B2B e-procurement and the effect of process characteristics on the value. We use an empirical study to highlight the different value created by different procurement types. We then develop a more comprehensive economic model to capture the additional effects of demand volume and process complexity. The integration of theoretical and empirical approaches provides a strong foundation to develop and evaluate useful adoption strategies for B2B e-procurement.