Public e-Procurement – Determinants of Attitudes Towards Adoption

Abstract

The paper discusses the need for more research on the adoption of public e-procurement and what factors influences this adoption. A number of European countries have developed and implemented solutions for public e-procurement at a national level. Despite major initiatives from state level and claims of reduced cost through wider choice and higher efficiency these have been adopted to a less extent than expected by the public sector in some of the countries. Lack of adoption may be due to a number of reasons. Technical problems, costly solutions and competing electronic marketplaces (Somasundaram 2004b) are causes often suggested. Henriksen et. al. (2004) suggests that decentralisation of purchasing power conflicting with centralised solutions may be an important cause in Denmark. In Norway, the governemnts project manager for implementation of e-procurement suggests lack of organisational change as a cause for lack of adoption (Computerworld 2004). We need to identify the reasons for the lack of adoption so that public spending is not wasted. We suggest that institutional theory may help understand the different attitudes towards adoption, and that community goals expressed as concern for the regional business community may be an important institutional factor. The paper outlines a research agenda and presents a tentative research model and a design to test this. The study itself will start early autumn 2004, and preliminary results will be available late 2004.