The role of e-commerce in supporting supplier exchanges in the Canadian aerospace industry

This thesis examines the role of electronic commerce in supporting business exchanges with suppliers. In spite of increasing interest from academics and practitioners, the impact of e-commerce utilization on supplier-buyer exchanges is not well known. Empirical research on the subject is scarce and primarily exploratory, or relies exclusively upon managers' perceptions. The present study develops and tests two models linking e-commerce to two key elements of a firm's performance: efficiency and learning. The principal hypothesis is that e-commerce utilization diminishes coordination costs (efficiency) and facilitates inter-firm learning. Also, the assumption is that e-commerce interacts with other variables that also affect efficiency and learning in the context of supplier relationships: uncertainty, geographical distance and relationalism. The research hypotheses are tested via a cross-sectional survey of large order-givers in the Canadian's aerospace industry. Information was gathered on 95 buyer-supplier relationships, assessed from the buyer's standpoint. Empirical data support the positive association between e-commerce utilization and both coordination costs and inter-firm learning. In addition, results suggest that the utilization of e-commerce applications moderates relationalism's beneficial effect on coordination costs. Contrary to expectations, results indicate that e-commerce applications do not moderate the deleterious impact of uncertainty and geographical distance on coordination costs. Similarly, empirical data do not support a moderator role for relationalism in the link between e-commerce and inter-firm learning. Overall, results suggest that e-commerce applications can become a powerful instrument for improving the performance of business exchanges.