DRIVING FORCES AND HINDERING FACTORS OF E-PROCUREMENT ADOPTION FOR MRO PRODUCTS IN BANGLADESH AND CHINA

Sammanfattning: Summary:  Business Administration, Business Process & Supply Chain Management, Degree Project (master), 30 higher education credits, 5FE02E, Spring 2012   Authors:      Mahmudul Islam and Tan Zhu Tutor:           Peter Berling Date:             May, 2012   Keywords: e-procurement, MRO procurement, e-procurement implementation, driving forces of e-procurement, hindering factors of e-procurement   Title: Driving forces and hindering factors of e-procurement adoption for MRO products in Bangladesh and China.    Background: MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations procurement) materials, as time goes by, are now attracting more and more enterprises´ attentions due to their enormous varieties, large quantity and huge cost. The traditional MRO procurement method has the problem of lacking of centralized management, funds, and channels, short of products and information flow. Meanwhile, e-procurement (electronic procurement), due to its advance, has nowadays been introduced to more and more enterprises for procuring mainly MRO materials, which leads to much savings and efficiency.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is aiming at throwing light upon two cases: one is BATA shoes in Bangladesh and one is GE aviation group in China, the driving forces and hindrances of their electronic procurement for MRO goods. Thereafter the authors intend to compare both cases according to the empirical findings and draw some future suggestions.   Method: In this thesis, the authors will employ qualitative multiple case studies method in the combination of interview and questionnaires with both cases to create the deep understanding of e-procurement implementation of them.   Results, conclusion: First, the current status of e-procurement implementation for MRO materials will be explained in the within-case analysis. Then, the internal driving forces and hindrances of each case will be thoroughly analysed according to the four sections-perceived benefits, perceived critical success factors, future organizational performance and perceived barriers in the theoretical framework. Finally, the authors will use cross-case analysis comparing both cases´ driving forces and hindrances according to the model, in order to draw systematic future suggestions for BATA shoes in Bangladesh with GE´s successful views.   Future work: The authors find it interesting that in the future if the seller firms´ perspective on e-procurement implementation for MRO materials could be studied.  Also a quantitative study on e-procurement for MRO, its impact on organizational performance would be very interesting subject to focus on.  Moreover, a study in the background of different countries, their cultural influences on e-procurement implementation would also be a suggestion.