Assessing the Effect of External Pressure in Inter-organizational IS Adoption - Case Electronic Invoicing

摘要

We assess the effect of external pressure in IS adoption in the inter-organizational settings of electronic invoicing. Electronic invoicing has been hailed as one of the biggest savings generators for businesses in recent years. However, the adoption in different countries has been much slower than anticipated. Based on earlier literature on diffusion of innovations, adoption of inter-organizational information systems, and institutional theory, we build a research model to empirically estimate the relative importance of external pressure in the context of an IOS implementation. We test the research model empirically using a survey data of companies that have received a letter enforcing them to move to electronic invoicing. We find that organizational readiness, external pressure, and perceived benefits are the most important factors affecting the adoption of electronic invoicing systems in small and medium sized companies (SMEs). We also find evidence for the "bandwagon effect" as well as for the supplier pressure.