The Long Term Effects of Electronic Commerce and Data Interchange on Firms

Abstract

This research aims to identify the determinants of electronic commerce effectiveness, as well as the variation over time of their effect. A two-phased study was undertaken for this purpose, using EDI as a specific form of electronic commerce. Sixty-five organisations were surveyed twice over a three-year period. In Phase 1, determining factors were found to be the level of organisational support, the rigour of the implementation process, the presence of control procedures, and the level of internal integration, external integration and imposition of EDI. Imposition also has a negative effect on the organisational context of EDI. In Phase 2, the implementation process, internal integration and imposition lost their importance, whereas the effect of imposition on the organisational context became positive. In the future, we expect the security and external integration to be the most important success factors of electronic commerce.