Firms may gain benefit from each other‘s skills and resources when they engaged in a long term supply chain relationship, hence, improving their competitive advantage. Adoption of information technology initiatives such as e-procurement systems may further enhance the effectiveness of the relationship. Trust and dependency factors have been identified as important elements that influence business relationships. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of technology attributes, inter-organizational trust and inter-organizational dependency manufacturer‘s have towards their suppliers and customers when making an e-procurement adoption decision. This study also aims to determine if there is a critical gap between trust and dependency towards suppliers and customers and to identify which trust and dependency constructs have the most critical gap. Data was collected through case study interviews and mail survey questionnaires. It was analysed using the Partial Least Square Regression (PLS) analysis where the results indicate that dependency did have a significant positive influence on e-procurement adoption decisions, while trust did not. Size of the company, which is a control variable, has a significantly negative effect on adoption decision. Hence, this study confirmed that the level of dependency and size of company did influence an e-procurement adoption decision. Three gap analysis methods, namely the T-test analysis, weighted mean gap and the un-weighted Important Performance Analysis (IPA), were adopted and the results indicate that there is a significant gap between trust and dependency towards the supplier and customer, where the level of both variables are higher towards the customer than the supplier. Construct related to communication of problem is identified as trust factor with the most critical gap, while how partners help improve a firm‘s reputation and the level of knowledge transfer have the most critical gap for dependency. This study extends the body of literature related to information technology adoption factors by investigating the effect of trust and dependency in supply chain relationships within a single study. While findings on dependency and size of company are consistent with previous studies, findings on trust provide a new paradigm to trust-related studies as it is identified as not an important factor that influence e-procurement adoption decisions, particularly in a developing country such as Malaysia.

Interest in the supply chain management concept by the construction research community arose from the successful implementation by manufacturing sectors to resolve firm and industry performance problems. Construction industry policymakers have appropriated the concept. Researchers tend to develop normative models to improve industry performance through supply chain integration. Such models are based upon the assumption of an homogeneous industry which is fragmented and composed of numerous small to medium sized enterprises. Policymakers are seeking positive economic models however policies are not based upon an explicit detailed understanding of the nature of the industry nor an explicit model of firm and industry performance. The positive economic model accepts that the industry is specialised and heterogenous with varied structural and behavioural characteristics across individual markets. The greatest difficulty with supply chain management in terms of construction research theory and practical application is that currently too little is known about these characteristics and how to describe them. / Procurement modelling across the supply chain is fundamental to describing the underlying structure and behaviour of the industry. The industrial organisation economics theory was examined for its contribution and the structure-conduct-performance methodology was modified to develop a project oriented industrial organisation economic model for procurement in the construction supply chain. The model defines entities such as firms, projects, markets and firm-firm relationships and their relative associations. The model was static and nomothetic in approach and lacked the capacity to represent the duality of structure and behaviour of entities and individual procurement and project scenarios. The object-oriented methodology was used to address this and reinterpret the construction supply chain using the Unified Modelling Language. The model is interdisciplinary and merges industrial organisation economics and object-oriented methodology. Structural and behavioural model views of real world procurement in construction supply chains were developed based upon six major building projects in an Australian city. On thousand two hundred and fifty three procurement relationships were mapped using data collected from forty seven structured interviews and forty four questionnaires. / The data analysis was qualitative and quantitative. Data display techniques were used to describe common themes and differences to develop an ideographic view of procurement. A statistical categorical data analysis provided a nomothetic view by comparing observed procurement results versus likelihood of expected results. The findings indicate that classifications of objects within the supply chain procurement model provides clues to structure and behaviour. Eight structural organisation maps of key construction industry commodities describe typical channels according to the type of commodity and the major groupings within the commodities. Supply chains can be classes according to attributes including uniqueness, property sector, importation and specialisation. Supplier firms can be classed by: commodity significance and countervailing power. The procurement relationships between firms can be classified based upon risk and expenditure, transaction significance and negotiation attributes. There are patterns of behaviour in the industry reliant upon a set of “if / then” type rules. This study concludes that the perception of the industry as fragmented, unstructured, unpredictable and high risk is a simplistic view of what is in reality a complex set of varied and numerous markets with degrees of predictability. Contrary to the traditional view, procurement is a strategic activity. This study highlights numerous research opportunities particularly in the area of interdisciplinary construction industry studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 200 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-151).

Thesis (M.Eng.)(Industrial)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes summary. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-138). Also available in printed version.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University, 2008 / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 24, 2008). Advisor: Jon Wergin, Ph.D.. "A dissertation submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September, 2008."--from the title page. Includes bibliographical references (p.129-137).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Sydney, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed 21 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science to the Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science and Centre for Values, Ethics and Law in Medicine. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-168). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Eng.(Industrial Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Summaries in Afrikaans and English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-227).

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.