Industrial e-market adoption: an exploratory study of organisational change issues

The adoption of business innovations, such as industrial e-markets (e-markets), and other B2B e-commerce applications and technologies, present supply chain organisations with a number of distinct benefits over traditional modes of procurement and supply such as paper, phone, fax, and e-mail. However, their adoption also present organisations with a number of organisational change issues that undermine their integration, the receipt of business benefits, and ultimately the success of e-markets. These change issues must be addressed prior to, during and after organisations participate in e-markets. This study explores the change issues that occur in supply chain organisations in the aerospace and defence and higher education sectors. The study found evidence to support four dimensions of change (organisational change, resistance to change, managing change and organisational learning) induced by the adoption of e-markets. In all probability, these four dimensions of change will also relate to the adoption of other innovative technologies. However, the organisational change issues induced by the advent of technological innovations are still an area of management that requires further exploration. This study contributes to the literature on organisational change induced by the adoption of new technologies.