Information transfer in B2B procurement: an empirical analysis and measurement

Inter-organizational relationships employing IT may be the most important technological breakthrough in B2B partnerships, since it is likely to alter the competitive landscape of industries radically. Electronic integration (EI) may be defined as the integration of business processes of two or more independent organizations through the exploitation of the capabilities of computer and communication technologies. Prior research has primarily used the adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) as a surrogate measure for EI. While researchers have called for the assessment of the degree of EI instead of presence/absence of EDI between two firms, a measure was still to be developed. Conceptualizing EI as a multi-dimensional construct, our research focused on developing a measure for a crucial component: electronic information transfer (EIT). Four dimensions of it (decision and operation integration (DOI), mutual investment in relationship-specific assets (MIRSA), information sharing (IS), and monitoring and control (MAC)) were analyzed and an instrument for EIT measurement was developed. Data collected from two major corporations in the U.S. were used to verify the instrument's ability to measure EIT effectively.