Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Adoption: A Study of SMEs in Singapore

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Adoption: A Study of SMEs in Singapore

Ping Li, Joseph M. Mula
Copyright: © 2009 |Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-040-0.ch015
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Abstract

A review of the literature showed that there appears to be very little research undertaken on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) adoption by small to medium sized business (SMEs) particularly in Singapore. This study is a preliminary attempt to quantify this area. Using a survey-based methodology, the research examined EDI adoption. Results indicate that Singapore SMEs confirm findings by some researchers that EDI adoption is significantly associated with a firm’s annual sales but is not significantly associated with employee size as other studies have shown (Rogers, Daugherty, & Stank, 1992). This study is at odds with previous single-dimension EDI adoption studies indicating a significant relationship between firm size (annual sales) and EDI depth (Williams, Magee, & Suzuki, 1998). Organization size showed a significant relationship with the volume and diversity of EDI use but not with the depth and breadth. The most important reason for Singaporean SMEs to adopt EDI was pressure from their EDI-capable trading partners, treating pressure from their competitors as the least important.
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Overview Of It And E-Commerce

Information Technology (IT) has been fundamentally changing the way organizations conduct their businesses and compete in the market place. Using IT, firms can link up with their suppliers and customers located in any part of the world, and employees can consult with each other on a real time basis. IT can expedite responses to customers’ orders and queries, reduce inventory, shorten production cycle time, improve quality, enhance the efficiency of delivery of products and services, and strengthen in-company coordination (Takashi, 2001)

Electronic commerce is the use of inter-networked computers to create and transform business relationships. E-commerce can be defined as including any form of commercial transactions of any kind of goods and services, conducted over computer networks, whether they are open or closed networks (Wong & Lam, 1999). In the knowledge-based economy, IT and e-commerce play a vital role in world-class organizations globally, regionally, and in Singapore.

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