A model for exploring the impact of purchasing strategies on user requirements determination of e-SRM

Recently, business managers have touted supplier relationship management (SRM) as the next core competency and a source of competitive advantage. This suggests the need of an e-SRM installation. SRM domain involves relatively wide and complex business processes and without the support of IT, it would not be accomplished easily. As the Internet became popular and many firms were quick to launch e-SRM, however, the effect went farther than was expected. In particular, the fundamental is in the determination of user requirements, commonly considered to be the key to the success of system installation and often inappropriately planned. This study involves a strategy-based planning process to guide user requirements determination. Moreover, the implementation step in this process, identification of supplier selection criteria, has rarely been considered and the literature has only discussed it isolatedly for the choice of a supplier. Basically, the process includes three steps: define purchasing strategies, identify supplier selection criteria, and determine system requirements. Empirical results have indicated that purchasing strategies significantly influence the performance of user requirements determination.