IMPACT OF E-SOURCE APPLICATION ON KEY BUSINESS STRATEGIES – EVIDENCES FROM AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY OF PAKISTAN

The purpose of this study was to examine e-sourcing applications and practices in automotive industry of Pakistan, specifically to learn the e-sourcing benefits achieved with respect to four key business strategies e.g. supply chain management, total quality management, time based purchasing, and organizational integration. Informal interviews guided by semi-structured questionnaire were managed across three representative case studies, including; a car manufacturer/assembler, motorbike assembler, and agri-equipment manufacturer/assembler. Delphi technique was used to collect and aggregate the final responses. It was observed that e-source applications like IFS (integrated financial system) in agri-equipment manufacturer/assembler, GLO (global logistic ordering system) in car manufacturer/assembler, and SAP modules in motorbike manufacturer/assembler, reflect technological variations. E-source has benefited automotive industry of Pakistan in number of ways e.g. cost reduction, delivery time reduction, faster information processing, deployment of total quality principles in supplier selection, enhanced collaboration and integration within (internal) and across (external) supply chain networks. However, opportunistic behavior, custom problems, consistent change in import/export policy of some countries, financial limits and non cooperative behavior of suppliers, have increased risk and limits long term strategic alliances. The study recommends that information transparency, sharing and communicating e- system achievements within (internal) and across (external) supply chain network/s, common forum to re-solve e-source problems, consistent technological up-gradation, enhance employee training, robust security, etc. as key strategies to enhance e-source benefits.