1. How is B2B EC adoption by organizations affected by the
technological, organizational and environmental contexts?
2. To what extent can DOI, RDT, IT, NCT and TOE be used
complementarily to better understand the influence of technological,
organizational and environmental factors on B2B EC
adoption?
To address these questions, we conducted a multiple case study
involving eight organizations with different backgrounds, sizes
and positions in the supply chain within the Indonesian grocery
industry. These participating organizations represent typical
manufacturers, distributors and retailers within that industry.
The grocery industry was chosen because it is characterized by
high transaction volumes and low profit margins and, therefore,
often pioneers technology adoption [25,34]. The study focuses on a
single industry rather than multiple industries to allow for
thorough and detailed investigations into the interplays among
the contextual factors and their influence on technology adoption
by organizations within the industry. Indonesia was selected as an
example of a developing country because it reflects typical
characteristics of developing nations, especially in the Asia Pacific
region [23,35]. Although Indonesia enjoyed a steady economic
growth at an average of 7% between the period between 1987 and
1997, it has only devoted a small percentage of its GDP to ICT
implementation and has a low score on the Network Readiness
Index (NRI) and E-Readiness Index (ERI) [36]. Therefore, the
findings of this study are likely to be relevant for other developing
countries, especially those with similar cultural, political, technological,
legal and socioeconomic conditions as Indonesia. At
present, there has been no comprehensive study employing a
multi-theory perspective to investigate how contextual factors
influence the adoption of B2B EC in Indonesia or other countries
with similar conditions.