| dc.description.abstract | E-procurement is a phenomenon that has existed for at least a decade and it has an increasing impact on the procurement process in the public sector. However, most e-procurement projects fail. They are either total failures or partial failures in which the system is never implemented, or in which major goals for the system are not attained. This thesis focuses on why municipalities are experiencing problems using e-procurement tools. This issue and the related research question wants to explain why municipalities are experiencing difficulties as well as to identify the instrumental and institutional factors that explains the problems and how these factors are interrelated. The theoretical framework is an organizational theoretical framework with an instrumental perspective as well as an institutional approach with a cultural perspective and a surroundings perspective. It turns out that the perspectives provides a complementary and sometimes competing explanation on why municipalities are experiencing problems and how matters are interrelated. Empirical evidence in this study confirms previous research that inadequate monitoring by management, vague objectives and resistance related to the use of new technology and shifts in the organizational structure are crucial factors.
According to the instrumental perspective, problems occur due to bounded rationality that leads to capacity and resource limitations. The management has introduced e-procurement as a tool to increase resource efficiency but they do not understand how extensive the implementation process is. Several internal and external parties have been involved in the development of the project and the management has lost track of the projects goals and the projects process. Respondents point out that e-procurement is only a small part of their work tasks and they do not have the capacity or the resources to follow it up. Consequently, it creates internal opposition because employees do not understand why they have to use eprocurement. According to the cultural perspective, this resistance emerges because of changes in the working practices and role distribution. E-procurement is a technical tool and the respondents wants to reduce the number of purchasers to increase the technical expertise. Employees do not want to give up their purchasing authority and this leads to low technical expertise. The employees perceive e-procurement as a cumbersome and time-consuming tool and they do not understand why they have to use it. Suppliers and Buskerud, Telemark and Vestfold procurement collaboration (BTV), produces catalogs with limited choices. According to the technical surroundings perspective, the problems relates to the limited choices in the product catalogs. The employees in the municipalities are not satisfied with the
II
quality of the product catalogues and they feel that e-procurement is time-consuming compared with other purchasing methods. Several of the respondents emphasize vague or no objectives as a problem and this raises the question of why the municipalities have implemented e-procurement in the first place. While the instrumental perspective explains the problems due to bounded rationality, it does not explain the lack of, or no concrete objectives. The social surroundings perspective, points out that the problems can related to external pressure and a desire to appear modern. Nevertheless, in varying degrees all the municipalities are using e-procurement, which may indicate that it was introduced as a symbolic measure but has evolved into an instrumental measure. Capacity- and resource constraints, and internal resistance related to the technology and changes in routines and role distributions, explains why municipalities are experiencing problems using e-procurement. | nb_NO |
