The impact of trust on e-procurement within the oil industry
University of East London
This thesis aims to predict the impact of trust on customer adoption of e-Procurement within the oil industry by extracting the moderating effect of trust with both the e-hub and the organisation. The primary constructs for capturing customer's adoption of e-Procurement were intentional to customer's management and on-line transaction behaviour. Following the social network theory, Vroom's theory, games theory and the theory of reasoned action (TRA), as applied to a technology-driven environment, this thesis describes a theoretical model (The Combined Trust Model) for investigating these main research questions: What constitutes trust in e-procurement? How is the strategic adoption of e-procurement cut across cultures? What are the impacts of trust on the adoption of e-procurement in the oil industry? To what extent is trust a moderator of behaviour measured in terms of both the organisation and customers? What factors influence the level of customers trust in e-Procurement? What could cause users to leave the adoption of e-Procurement? Based on the Combined Trust Model and research questions, a comprehensive set of hypothesis were formulated and a methodology for testing them is outlined. Some of the hypotheses were tested empirically to demonstrate the applicability of the Combined Trust Model. The findings indicate that WOM referrals, structural assurances and the tendency to trust were major positive determinants to e-Procurement adoption. As an extension, we explored e-Procurement manager's paradigms from different oil companies whose aim were to discuss the practices, successes and standards of e-Procurement within a forum, by conducting an interview process. The findings from the interview process revealed that perceived risk could reduce e-Procurement adoption. Furthermore, we performed an experimentation to determine the most used e-Procurement technology solution within the oil industry. We were also engaged in a participant observation process, to determine if cultural complexities could be an issue with the a-adoption and retention of e-Procurement transactions. The results revealed that SAP is the most used technology solution, seconded by ARIBA and the findings of the participant observation process indicates there could be cultural issues with e-Procurement adoption and retention but appropriate change management protocol supported by effective communication could enhance the e-Procurement transaction within the oil industry.