Perceived Risks in Supply Chain Management E-Collaboration

Supply chain management is an accepted concept involving a process-oriented, integrated approach to procuring, producing, and delivering products and services to customers. The boom in applying Internet-based applications is driven by corporate desires to use wireless access, extranets, Internet-based EDI, e-marketplaces, web services and other remote networks for supply chain activities. This paper reports the findings of a study that aims to examine perceived risks of e-commerce in supply chain activities. The conceptual model developed from previous research identifies four types of risks, namely technological, organizational, implementation, and relational risks. The model is tested via in-depth multiple case studies in seven firms from a cross-section of different industries who applied e-technologies in their supply chain activities. The findings highlight factors that contribute to risks and the related undesirable consequences that the firms experienced. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.