Authors: Jens Hultman; Susanne Hertz
Through decades, marketing and purchasing managers have been canonized with the promiseof information technology and the benefits associated with its exploitation. How to exploitinformation technology is still one of the most important current concerns among managersand purchasing and supply executives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how theadoption of electronic auctions can be influenced by a firm’s relative position in a network. Inthis paper, we present a single case study where we have searched for deeper understanding ofe-auction practice in a business-to-business context. The research questions addressed are: a)what are the conflicts of interests and what effects might these have on business relationships?b) what role do network positions play in the implementation e-auctions in the buyer-sellerrelationship? Our empirical findings imply that network relationships and positions played arole on more than one level in the case that we present. On one level, the ambition to developthe existing relationship between buyer and seller and the strong network position of thebuyer, made the management of the supplier comply in participating in the competition of thee-auction regarding the contract to become a system supplier. On another level, the relativelyweaker position of the buyer in its turn to the owner group made management of the buyer,despite the former relational orientation and some skepticism towards e-auctions, increase theutilization of e-applications. The conflicts of interest that appeared were mainly based on lackof understanding among the managers of the supplier whether the buyer aimed at a relationalor transactional orientation. The case shows that the implemented e-auction seemed to haveelements of both the relational and the transactional approach. Even though the buyerexpressed an ambition to change the character of their relationship into arms-length, theauction seemed more of a temporary disruption in a relational approach. The ambiguousmessages sent on different levels caused confusion and distrust about the existing and futuredevelopment of the relationship. Therefore when applying transactional orientation to anexisting network of relational orientation the orientation in the eyes of the beholder (i.e., thelocal manager or employee) might be what decides the role, implementation and final outcome of the e-auctions.
Journal: ( – )
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Publish Year: 2004
Conference: Copenhagen, Denmark (2004)