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Scholarly research on e-procurement has been limited and, like e-government, e-procurement has been researched primarily from the perspective of adoption/non-adoption. This paper aims to focus on public administration employees’ perceptions of the quality of národní elektronický nástroj (NEN) – the Czech national e-procurement tool they are required to use.

The paper is based primarily on statistical analysis of data obtained through two questionnaire surveys addressed to contacts from of all Czech central state administration bodies using NEN; 175 completed questionnaires were gathered in 2020 and 128 in 2022 and subjected to statistical analysis in SPSS.

NEN was launched as fully operational in August 2015. The research indicates that in 2022 there were still important gaps in the quality of NEN as perceived by public employees.

The paper has important practical implications for e-procurement policymakers. It shows that making the e-procurement system compulsory is not sufficient. The government needs to guarantee that it would be competitive with tools that would otherwise be preferred. Otherwise, the application of the digital-by-default principle may lead to institutionalisation of services that are not user-friendly. This has important implications for e-government/e-procurement management and change management.

Little is known about public employees’ perceptions of the quality of e-government and e-procurement. Although e-procurement is an area where the digital-by-default principle was implemented rather early, the quality of e-procurement has still received limited attention in research.

Despite significant investment in e-procurement by many organisations, perceived failings in the quality of such technologies and of the support provided to use them – termed here e-procurement quality – continue to generate resistance from internal customers who must assimilate e-procurement into their daily routines. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of e-procurement quality from an internal customer perspective and to develop, refine, and validate construct measures.

Research was undertaken in the UK and the Netherlands incorporating a literature review, a qualitative study with 58 interviews, a quantitative study with 274 survey respondents, and a replication study with 154 survey respondents.

Analysis reveals that e-procurement quality comprises five universally applicable dimensions: processing, content, usability, professionalism, and training. A sixth dimension, specification, appears to be applicable, but context specific.

The study represents one of the most extensive investigations of e-procurement quality to date and is the first to examine its underlying dimensional structure. The multi-item scales developed and validated using a mixed-methods process are suitable for theory building and testing, as well as providing useful diagnostic value to practitioners.

Because of the renewed interest in public purchasing and the strategic use of public funds under the requirements of sustainable development, the question arose once again as to how to curb the fall of institutional quality once criteria other than price are inserted into the decision-making in public purchasing. E-procurement has been repeatedly named as one of the most efficient tools to that effect and the present paper sets out to discover whether the implementation of e-procurement in a particular country per se entails also higher institutional quality, allowing for a wider implementation of green and sustainable procurement at the national, regional and municipal level without the fear of worsening the country’s institutional quality. By analyzing the implementation of e-procurement in Denmark, the Netherlands and in Portugal, this paper aims to verify the hypothesis that the implementation of e-procurement implies better institutions in terms of public purchasing. As such, the conclusions will be used in further research on the prerequisites for a successful implementation of green public procurement across the European Union.

Gathering data on institutional quality of three early e-procurement adopters (Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal) allows for comparison of institutional quality pre- and post-e-procurement implementation. By using difference-in-differences comparison the paper seeks to answer the question how doesmandatory e-procurement influence institutional quality on the national level.

The paper finds that the reform is generally associated with a relatively stronger control of corruption in the Netherlands and Denmark, while a similar reform in Portugal failed to translate into a stronger control of corruption. Furthermore, while using the quality of regulation as a dependent variable, a positive and robust effect on the quality of regulation in Denmark was shown, while the quality of reputation in the Netherlands and Portugal declined in the post-reform period, with the drop in the quality of regulation in Portugal being considerably greater, a two-fold higher amount than the estimated drop in the Netherlands. The paper suggests that in spite of the same aims, the reform yielded substantially different or even opposing effects compared to Denmark.

By examining three examples of early adopters, further research with broader impact is needed to deduce general implications for e-procurement implementation. Furthermore, implementation of e-procurement at the regional or local level can also yield distinct results.

Understanding the actual impact of e-procurement on institutional quality is indispensable for further study on the matter. The present study argues that e-procurement needs to be accompanied by additional measures or variables to yield a positive impact on institutional quality in public procurement.

As to originality, the present paper uses a law and economics approach, originating or better said drawing motivation from green public procurement concerns, trying to provide an insight in terms of tools that can be used to eliminate concerns regarding institutional quality when implementing green public procurement practices.

Whilst e‐procurement has significant potential to reduce the purchasing costs of an organisation, the realisation of these savings requires user compliance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which user‐perceived e‐procurement quality (EPQ) (operationalised through the dimensions of professionalism, processing, training, specification, content, and usability) influences both system and contract compliance.

User perceptions of EPQ were examined in four UK organisations using survey data from 274 respondents.

Strong evidence was found of a positive relationship between user‐perceived EPQ and both system and contract compliance. System compliance was most strongly influenced by professionalism and content dimensions, whilst contract compliance was most strongly influenced by processing, specification, and content dimensions.

Data were collected from e‐procurement users in four organisations, which may limit the extent to which findings can be generalised.

User perceptions of e‐procurement provision significantly influence system and contract adoption. Practitioners should pay attention to management of different dimensions of perceived quality as they may have different effects on both contract and system compliance.

This paper is the first to empirically assess the relationship between user‐perceived EPQ and compliance. Its findings challenge the assumption that the monopolistic dynamics common within internal services, such as e‐procurement provision, are sufficient to ensure compliance. Dissatisfied individuals invariably find ways to circumvent mandatory systems and contracts.

Despite the widespread organisational adoption of e-procurement systems, we continue to witness disappointing performance outcomes from their implementation. This can be explained largely by the failure of many organisations to translate the initial adoption decision, made at an organisational level, into individual-level acceptance of e-procurement by an organisation’s employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key antecedents of the technology acceptance model (TAM) for employees expected to use e-procurement systems in their day-to-day activities.

In this study, the authors apply and extend the TAM to examine the factors that influence the acceptance of e-procurement by individual employees. The authors’ focus is on the potential role of user-perceived e-procurement quality dimensions as the antecedents to the TAM’s cognitive mechanisms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The structural equation model uses the survey data collected from 139 e-procurement users at a university in the Netherlands.

The results confirm the core TAM relationships within an e-procurement context. Extending the TAM model to explore the antecedents, the authors find that the e-procurement quality dimensions of processing, usability, and professionalism impact the levels of individual employee e-procurement acceptance. Interestingly, the system-level dimensions (processing and usability) appear to play a greater role than the support dimensions (professionalism) in these cognitive mechanisms.

The findings indicate that the need for e-procurement training and on-going support may be lessened by initial effective design covering system navigation and system usability and by ensuring that an e-procurement system has expedient information and product flows between the buyer and supplier.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the TAM and, more critically, its antecedents within an e-procurement context. It is also the first to empirically validate this extended model. Finally, by shifting the focus from the more typical organisational-level adoption to an individual employee acceptance unit of analysis, the authors provide a better understanding of how organisations can gain the most from investments in e-procurement and other similar e-supply chain management technologies.

The commonly used e-procurement systems still show unsatisfactory implementation outcomes because many organisations are still unable to effectively interpret the initial adoption decision. The e-procurement systems are generally developed at organisational level, but their usage is at individual level, by the employees particularly. This paper examined technology acceptance model’s (TAM) key antecedents, involving e-procurement systems usage by employees in their daily activities. This study aims to examine the impact of factors affecting e-procurement acceptance among users through the mediating role of users’ attitude. The commonly used e-procurement systems still show.

TAM was applied and expanded in this study, in exploring the factors impacting the employees’ e-procurement acceptance. This study used quantitative method, and questionnaires were distributed to 200 users in Jordanian public shareholding firms. The collected data were quantitatively analysed using PLS modelling.

Significant TAM relationships involving e-procurement were affirmed. The expanded TAM in the scrutiny of antecedents showed that content, processing and usability affected perceived usefulness, while perceived convenience did not affect the usefulness factor. Furthermore, it was noticed that perceived ease of use was affected by usability and training, while perceived connectedness was not affected by usability and training.

The results demonstrated the necessity of e-procurement training. Furthermore, at the start of the implementation stage, effective design on system navigation and system usability, and consistent support, could increase use effectiveness and acceptance. Also, expedient information and buyer–supplier product flows should be made available.

Most organizations invest a lot of time and money in installing e-procurement systems to deliver their goods at the right time and at the right price. However, many of these e-procurement systems have failed due to low acceptance among users. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that used TAM and theory of planned behaviour in examining the effects of perceived convenience, perceived connectedness, content, training, processing and usability factors, in Jordanian firms. Lastly, the focus of this study was on the individual employee’s acceptance, rather than on the organisational-level adoption, as the unit of analysis, to provide insight on how organisations can achieve maximally from e-procurement investments and from other comparable technologies of e-supply chain management.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the process through which external diffusion of business-to-business (B2B) e-procurement impacts firm performance. The research model has been developed to empirically examine the role of information transparency and supply chain coordination in improving the firm financial performance by external diffusion of e-procurement.

The survey is conducted in India with a target population of purchasing professionals working on the B2B e-procurement platform. The measurement model was first tested by using confirmatory factor analysis for reliability and validity, then structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses of the research model using AMOS 22. The phantom model approach has been used for testing multiple mediators.

The result of the study highlights the importance of information transparency and supply chain coordination in enhancing the firm financial performance by external diffusion of e-procurement. The results establish the role of information transparency in enhancing firm performance by improving supply chain coordination. The results also indicate that supply chain coordination mediates the relationship between external diffusion of e-procurement and firm financial performance.

This is the first study that has focused on the external diffusion of e-procurement and its impact on firm performance. Also, this study attempted to understand the process through which external diffusion of e-procurement impacts the firm financial performance.

This paper aims to build upon the debate in the service quality literature regarding both the theoretical and practical effectiveness of expectations data in the measurement of internal service quality (ISQ). Gap‐based and perceptions‐only approaches to measuring ISQ are tested and their respective benefits and limitations evaluated.

The internal service context used in this study is the provision of e‐procurement software, training, and user support in four organisations. The two approaches are evaluated in terms of reliability and validity, as well as pragmatic aspects of survey administration.

The various tests carried out indicate that both the gap‐measure and perceptions‐only measure are reliable and valid, the latter being the marginally higher performer. Both approaches were found to have benefits and limitations, and so the empirical study, combined with contributions from the literature, generates some understanding of the internal service context in which the two approaches might be appropriate.

The survey was based on an internal e‐procurement service; as such, the variables and dimensions selected to measure ISQ in this context inevitably limit the scope of the research.

For operations managers, the paper clarifies the basis on which they might choose between the two approaches to ISQ measurement.

This study is the first to directly test and compare the relative merits of these two approaches to ISQ measurement. The paper also offers insights as to the operational contexts in which each approach might be appropriate.

The research aims to qualitatively explore e-marketplace service quality (EMSQ) from the perspective of an industrial buyer as a sole decision-maker. It further intends to quantitatively examine its impact on the industrial buyer's perceived value (PV), overall satisfaction (SAT), and e-loyalty (ELOY) in the context of business-to-government (B2G) e-commerce.

The research used an exploratory sequential mixed-method design. A qualitative exploratory study of EMSQ was conducted using a Straussian grounded theory (GT) technique, followed by an explanatory quantitative study using PLS-SEM to evaluate causal links between various research variables.

In the area of e-services, the investigation found that the hierarchical structure of EMSQ encompasses six broadly applicable dimensions and one B2G context-specific dimension of the e-governance process quality. The study also reinforced previous research findings in the B2C and B2B e-commerce domains, highlighting that e-service quality positively impacts online buyer's PV, SAT and ELOY.

This research contributed to the area of e-service operations by developing and validating the EMSQ model in the B2G e-commerce settings. Further, it has opened up new research avenues in B2G e-commerce.

The findings from this research highlighted that e-service operations managers should focus on usability, technological concerns, product/vendor quality concerns, customer support reliability, along with effective e-governance, ordering and logistics processes for e-business success. It also provides policymakers with guidelines for making B2G e-marketplaces sustainable.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study employing the GT and PLS-SEM techniques to explore EMSQ from the viewpoint of industrial buyers in B2G e-commerce. The study contributed to prior literature by proposing and validating the hierarchical EMSQ model.

Despite the substantial research in the domain of electronic procurement adoption, usage and performance (EP AUP), there is no structured review of these studies and most of the literature is in fragmented form. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate and synthesize EP AUP research in the past two decades and map key research approaches, prevailing theories and antecedents used by researchers to study EP AUP at the individual user and organizational level.

To evaluate and comprehend past and current patterns/themes in the EP AUP research area, a systematic literature review is undertaken. Significant peer-reviewed studies covering three categories – adoption, usage and performance and seven classification criteria are critically reviewed.

The findings reveal that most investigators mainly used “technology acceptance model,” “technology–organization–environment” framework and their extensions, demonstrating that “perceived ease of use,” “perceived usefulness,” “trust,” “organizational size,” “organizational readiness” and “behavioral intentions” are the most critical drivers of EP AUP.

For researchers and practitioners, the review highlights a taxonomy of contextual factors to be considered for successful EP AUP. It further makes suggestions for future research meeting challenges of Industry-4.0.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic literature review undertaken in the field of EP that studies it from three different perspectives. It further builds on the determinants of EP AUP and classifies them in four distinct categories: organizational, individual, information system level and environmental.