E-procurement adoption in Botswana construction companies : an exploratory assessment using regression analysis to empirically test a conceptual model

Construction industry contributes significantly to the economy of many countries. It is responsible for the buildings and roads used by people in their everyday lives. However, with the amount of construction projects increasing, the need to exchange relevant documentation and sharing of information among the industry stakeholders has increased tremendously. Nevertheless, the introduction of e-procurement systems in the construction sector has addressed the aforementioned issues. It has improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement cycle time to a greater extent. This system facilitates the exchange of information in real time among stakeholders.

Despite the benefits of this system being realized, its adoption within the construction industry is still very slow and it is clear that, e-procurement system is not being utilized. In seeking reasons why e-procurement is progressing slowly in the construction industry, this study extended and tested e-procurement adoption model proposed by Gunasekaran and Ngai [20] among construction companies in Botswana, so as to identify the factors that influence the adoption of this system. The original model by Gunasekaran and Ngai consists of four factors which include perceived barriers, perceived benefits, critical success factors and organizational performance. Nevertheless, taking into consideration that, Gunasekaran and Ngai overlooked other potential factors in their model, the study modified the original model to add two factors which include, management readiness and technology readiness in order to build a more comprehensive model.

The study depended entirely on quantitative methods to best answer the research questions. In this investigation, the questionnaire was used to collect data from executive managers, quantity surveyors and project managers of various construction companies in Botswana to obtain their views regarding the factors influencing the adoption of procurement system. Data obtained from the questionnaire was recorded in SPSS software and binomial logistic regression was used to validate the model and give insights into the factors that significantly affect the adoption of an e-procurement system. The study found out that perceived barriers, organizational performance, management readiness and technology readiness affect e-procurement adoption to a greater extent however, perceived benefits and critical success factors do not show any relationship with e-procurement adoption.