A Comprehensive Examination of Internet-EDI Adoption

Abstract

By taking advantage of the Internet, a new generation of Interorganizational Information Systems, i.e., Internet electronic data interchange (I-EDI) provides great efficiency for performing business-to-business transactions and is much more affordable than other network alternatives. Few empirical studies have been conducted to examine the adoption of I-EDI and little guidance has been given to the practitioners in the field. To fill this void, this research investigates the adoption of I-EDI by U.S. enterprises based on a comprehensive framework. Results from an online survey of 219 organizational respondents indicate that the proposed framework is able to help explain organizational adoption of I-EDI. This study provides insights and interesting findings toward technology adoption in Internet era. While some new factors are found to play important roles in IOS adoption, several conventional factors, such as technology compatibility and organization size, are no longer significant in explaining the adoption of I-EDI. Different effects of interorganizational factors such as power, trust, and relationship commitment on I-EDI adoption have been revealed. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided.

Keywords:

• IOS
• internet electronic data interchange (I-EDI)
• adoption
• interorganizational
• trust
• power