Adoption of e-procurement and participation of e-marketplace on firm performance: Trust as a moderator

Today, IT has a major influence on commercial activities, accelerating the adoption of e-procurement and e-marketplace participation in many industries. We examined firm motivations for adopting e-procurement for their operations in thee-marketplace and measured their performance to assess its benefits. Trust was considered as a moderating variable between the relationship of e-procurement adoption and e-marketplace participation. A two-stage analysis, including both a qualitative and quantitative approach, was applied. Hypotheses were developed and a model constructed. A research questionnaire was developed and distributed followed by data analysis and testing. The results showed that firms that adopted e-procurement were more likely to participate in the e-marketplace and that the firm's performance was enhanced after such participation. Trust was shown to have a moderating effect upon firm willingness to adopt e-procurement when it was considering participation in the e-marketplace. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.