| dc.description.abstract | Currently there is a trend towards increased focus on the importance of the purchasing function and costs of maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) goods. This has led to companies investing in electronic procurement tools in order to reduce those costs and increase efficiency. However, studies have shown that only 20-27% of these investments are successful. To ensure the success of such investments, it is beneficial to consider critical success factors (CSFs) covering important aspects of the implementation.
The aim of this master s thesis is to validate and assess the relevance of a framework covering eleven CSFs for three distinctive project phases of an electronic procurement implementation. The main research question is Are different CSFs more or less relevant for different types of end-users in an e-procurement implementation context? , but is limited to some parts of the framework considering its comprehensiveness. The purpose of the framework is to aid managers in decision-making by presenting a framework with clear managerial implications. In addition, the framework is also intended to assist the ongoing implementation of an electronic ordering system at the case company, St Olav s Hospital, to which both this master s and our pre-diploma thesis were written in collaboration with. The framework in focus was developed by us in our pre-diploma thesis, but although looking promising, it needed further validation. This master s thesis will continue the work by employing a case study survey research design and quantitatively analyzing the results of a survey deployed to 803 end-users at the case company, capturing the end-user perspective of the implementation.
The findings of the thesis show that some of the investigated CSFs are indeed important to the sample of end-users, and that there are differences, especially regarding sex and age, in how important end-users consider the CSFs to be. For example, training is found to be more important for both females and for older respondents, while communication is found to be important for all end-users. Moreover, an exploratory factor analysis suggests that there is room for improving the framework, by finding that the perceptions towards electronic systems are important to consider. Furthermore, these findings imply that companies should not only consider the CSFs in the framework, but also the differences that may exist between end-users. | |
