Title: E-procurement and human moments, and its impact on smaller industrial distributors

Authors: Alan D. Smith

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3099, USA

Abstract: The emergence of web-enabled customers in industrial distribution is particularly a major force with smaller distributors, causing management to rethink their overall business strategy in more price sensitive marketplace. An empirical study was preformed using multiple linear regression and data-reduction analyses to test these trends among age, experience, product selection, destruction of face-to-face interactions, and technological sophistication. There was significant evidence to support the adoption of e-procurement applications with smaller industrial distributors, especially in the current highly competitive and economically challenging environments. Although a low-cost strategy is not considered a sustainable approach, since premium pricing strategies among retaining existing customers usually nets greater profit margins, the low-cost approach is being rapidly forced upon them, with adopting e-procurement technologies as the potential solution.

Keywords: corporate strategy; customer relationship management; CRM; empirical; e-procurement; industrial distribution; inventory; human moment; marketing; operational effectiveness; electronic procurement; online procurement; small distributors; small firms; procurement technologies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPM.2011.042169

International Journal of Procurement Management, 2011 Vol.4 No.5, pp.483 - 512

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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