Electronic Procurement in the Construction Industry

Abstract

The benefits of e-business have been widely promoted but the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector has lagged behind other sectors in the adoption of e-procurement. The prospective benefits for the AEC sector are suggested by the proven advantages of general e-procurement where adoption has been faster and deeper. However, several studies indicated that barely 20% of documentation is tendered electronically, suggesting there are barriers to e-procurement. In order to promote adoption of e-procurement in the AEC sector, it is important to establish the status of the industry and identify the drivers as well as barriers to e-procurement. This chapter provides a detailed discussion of the state of the industry and its drivers and barriers while ranking these according to its importance. It acts as a reference guide to allow those implementing e-procurement in construction to make informed decisions as to where to focus their efforts to achieve successful realisation incorporating the benefits and avoiding the pitfalls in the process. The chapter also provides some insight into the current state, trends, and future directions of e-procurement in the construction industry.

Drivers and barriers to digitalisation: a cross-analysis of the views of designers and builders in the construction industry

“…The AEC sector in many countries, including Australia, finds digitalisation challenging (Gajendran and Perera, 2016, Leviäkangas et al, 2017, Stewart et al, 2002, Eadie et al, 2012). E-procurement was the main component of digitalisation in construction a decade ago, and many studies have identified drivers and barriers to digitalisation since then (Eadie et al, 2010, Eadie et al, 2012. Today, the necessity for digitalisation has extended to practices beyond e-procurement and into all aspects of design and construction practices.…”

Mediating Role of Firm Size for Ethcial E-Procurement Implementation: Employee Perception From Smes

“…The research instrument for perceived cost adopted from the study of Eadie et al, (2007), the research items used in the current study "Cost of acquiring and operating the package, less labor-intensive feature of e-Procurement, increase in profit margin associated with e-procurement and e-procurement has high running costs".…”

Challenges in the Integration of E-Procurement Procedures into Construction Supply Chains

“…As in traditional procurement systems, practitioners may encounter issues such as data security, poor integration with existing systems, and transparency in supply chain operations [54]. The literature highlights that, unlike eprocurement in other industries, such as manufacturing, e-procurement in construction involves highly complex and challenging system operations [55]. While Eadie et al [31] investigated how drivers and barriers to construction e-procurement vary from country to country, Eadie et al [27] examined the drivers and barriers to e-procurement and their perceived differences between public and private organizations.…”

“…Aduwo et al [43] and Farzin and Nezhad [57] considered high investment costs to be a key economic/financial barrier. Other studies examining barriers to e-procurement highlighted a variety of issues, such as potential cyber-attacks on the supply network [28], security concerns [24], cultural attitudes [58], insufficient ICT infrastructure [43,55], and unreliable power supply [43,55].…”