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The desire to share information and promote collaborative management and coordination of supply chains (SC) causes firms to turn to interorganizational information systems (IOS) for SCM (van Hoek, 2001). During the last decade or so there has been a considerable infusion of information technology (IT) into SCM, such as electronic data interchange (EDI) networks, extranets, B2B, electronic commerce and electronic markets. They enable integration between trading partners through faster, more efficient and more accurate data exchange, thus offering ample benefits for trading partners (Rahim & Kurnia, 2004). The operational and strategic benefits of IOS adoption and use include strengthening buyer–seller relationships, improving bargaining power over customer/suppliers, shortening lead time, fitting products to customer requirements, facilitating purchasing transactions, reducing errors and returns, lowering the organization’s inventory levels, and improving transportation practices (Grover & Saeed, 2007).
Hill and Scudder (2002) contended that using IOS can facilitate frequent and automatic bidirectional information flows between SC partners, thus enhancing degree of coordination between them. In order to gain process efficiencies through collaborative or partnership-like relationships, organizations need to expand information flows in the SC by instituting IOS that are integrated and facilitate exchange of a comprehensive set of information. The factors influencing the adoption of IOS systems are presented in the literature, but the IOS adoption in SCs with SC context specific antecedents is very limited. So, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which influence the IOS adoption in SCs, and to clarify to what extent these aforementioned factors play a role in the IOS adoption, if any. In accordance with our research objective, the choice of IOS is based on the following two concerns: first, there are trends in the adoption of IOS by SC partners because of both the strategic and operational importance and second, network based information systems (IS) have been the focus of technology adoption research and practice in recent years. In this research work, a model is built on the foundation of earlier work dealing with technology adoption at the organizational levels and by examining the SC context specific antecedents behind the motivations of adoption of technology in SCs.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: the literature review appears in the first section, the theoretical background of the model is addressed afterwards, the framework of the conceptual model is covered in the following section, and the conclusions are finally presented.