The Business to Business Enterprise Integration Concept:

An exploratory study into the inhibitors to the adoption of business to business enterprise integration by engineer to order organizations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research would not have been possible without the support of my teacher & family so I would like to thank them for their support & help through out this project.

DECLARATION

This thesis represents the individual creative work of the author, who is solely responsible for its content. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any format, including electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. This thesis and the work contained herein have not been submitted for a degree at any other University.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to explore the inhibitors to adoption of the B2B concept and how they could be overcome. A decision was made to target the research at the UK engineer to order manufacturing sector. Initially, the research focused on providing the reader with an overview of the evolution of this concept, a definition, perceived business benefits and the general industrial status of this concept. The literature was reviewed, summarized and the theory behind this concept was developed. The conclusion was that there is no technological reason why this concept cannot be fully adopted by the UK engineer to order sector. In view of this a qualitative case study approach was considered to be an appropriate method for identifying the inhibitors to the adoption of this concept. The first phase of the research consisted of conducting key informant interviews at eleven engineers to order companies in the UK. Three interviews with key informants were carried out at each company. This group triangulation approach mitigated any bias. The second phases involved a full scale participant observation case study over a one year budget cycle at one of the eleven companies during the implementation of the B2B concept. Four key inhibitors were identified; management awareness of the benefits and implementation challenges of this concept, business risk in terms of return on investment, information security risk associated with loss of competitive advantage and the lack of relevant skills within the organization. These findings were tested during the full scale case study. The outcome of the research recommends an iterative model for overcoming the four key inhibitors identified. This is significant for practitioners, particularly in the engineering to order sector, who are in the process of implementing the B2B concept. It confirms that successful implementation can be achieved if senior management teams are fully aware of the potential benefits and the implementation challenges. Additionally, business and information security risks must be dealt with by appropriate de-coupling and the workforce should have the relevant skills to deal with the new systems. From an academic perspective this research provides two significant contributions. This is the first study to explore the inhibitors to the adoption of the B2B concept by using a combination of interviewing key ...