1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The prevalence of globalisation has resulted in the integration of
digital technologies within the business that advanced the way people
communicate formally and informally to achieve business and individual goals.
It is studied that the emergence of e-commerce has simplified the approach of doing
businesses by inducing electronic methods that have also helped in achieving
firms’ competitiveness and survival in the long run.
E-commerce is defined as the buying and selling of products and services,
primarily through the internet to achieve desired outcomes. Since different channels of e-commerce are rapidly growing as shown in
Figure below, it has also allowed retailers to continuously advance and
revolutionise the way consumers explore, browse and shop.
In addition to this, it is studied that different business functions
are critical to firm’s success, but procurement play a vital role as it
accounts for more than half of enterprises’ sales volume (Manu et al., 2021).
Thus, it is important for companies to reduce complexity of the procurement
process and provide efficient distribution of products to the clients and
end-users. It is examined in the research that procurement is crucial to both,
trading and manufacturing companies, and by efficiently performing procurement,
it result in reduced cost, boost of profit, and enhanced quality of the
products. Likewise, the emergence of e-procurement, also
regarded as web-based procurement has emerged that has driven potential to
reduce the total cost of acquisition which will be explored in the proposed
research.
1.2 Problem Statement
In today’s fast paced digital world, there have been much
complexities occurred for businesses to meet the changing dynamics of the
market and consumers’ preferences simultaneously to achieve profitable returns
(Prior et al., 2021). Moreover, the manufacturing firms where products are made
of raw materials and components, and trading companies purchasing of goods and
then supply to customers are both regarded as critical and time-consuming
process. This presents the fact that procurement is one of the challenging
phase of the organisations where it is studied by Chan et al., (2018), failure
to understand procurement process results in disproportionate level of
problems, specifically in the development of mega projects.
While, it is examined that e-procurement has emerged as revolution due
to the cost-effective procurement systems to solve many administrative problems
in the public and private sector. It is has studied that
there are extensive benefits of e-procurement over traditional procurement
methods but the complexity in meeting consumers rapid changing demands,
competitiveness and rising economic aspects of the market have remained
challenging and unexplored from the perspective of digital technologies and
e-commerce dimension. Therefore, this research will highlight the key aspects
and factors of e-commerce in reducing the complexity of procurement process.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
The main aim of the study will be to explore the key factors of
e-commerce that significantly help in reducing the complexity of procurement
process in different sectors. The following objectives will be considered to
deliver potential outcomes;
·
To assess the significance of
procurement process in supply chain management organisation.
·
To evaluate the benefits of
e-procurement within the firm
·
To explore the impact of
e-commerce on managing the procurement process.
·
To highlight the factors of
e-commerce and its influence on reducing the complexity of the procurement
process.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions are
planned to investigate the aspects of the topic;
1.
What is the significance of
procurement process in supply chain management of an organisation?
2.
What are the potential benefits
and aspects of e-procurement?
3.
How does e-commerce impact on
the management of procurement process within organisations?
4.
What are the key e-commerce
factors that help in reducing the complexity of the procurement process?
2. Literature Review
The process of procurement is studied from different perspectives in
the literature that led to different definitions and concepts’ emergence. The
study conducted by Bag et al., (2020), defined procurement as the process of
sourcing, obtaining and paying for the obtained goods or services. While, it is
also described as the preparation and processing of demand as well as the
approval or end receipt of payment that aids in obtaining competitive prices
for supplies, thereby delivering the potential value (Rejeb et al., 2018). In
essence, procurement accounts for major enterprises’ sales volume that
significantly contribute to the profitability of the firm.
In addition, researchers have also highlighted the procurement as
part of supply chain management. The findings conducted by Bienhaud and Haddud (2018),
showed that supply chain management is considered as infrastructure required
for covering the logistics involved in goods and services, and transforming the
procured goods or services into products distributed to the customers. Likewise,
it is evaluated that supply chain is a major part comprising different process
involving, planning, designing, implementation, controlling, and monitoring key
logistics activities of a firm that also involve procurement, warehouse,
distribution, transportation and so on. This
explains that procurement and supply chain are interlinked for adequate and
efficient distribution of product or services to the customer.
Though, research rectified the ramification of consumers’ changing demands
and complexity of procurement in manufacturing and trading firms. The study
conducted by Ekinci and Baykasoğlu (2019) concluded that procurement is complex
process in manufacturing and trading firms that also result in failure of
transporting goods and services in minimal time. While, the prevalence of
e-procurement and its importance was highlighted in the research which reflected
its main benefits in terms of technology usage, reduced cost, and better
sourcing. This showed that integration of digital technology
has considered viable in managing complexity in procurement that resulted in
efficient management of raw material and delivery of goods and services. Similarly,
the emergence of e-commerce has considered vital technology innovation that
fostered the relationship between suppliers and organisation to help manage the
complexity of procurement process. These theoretical
constructions will further be explored in the research.
1. Methodology
3.1 Research Philosophy
The research philosophy explores and highlight the thoughts of the
researcher to analyse the problem and evaluate the solutions based on
underlying assumptions (Žukauskas et al., 2018). Generally, interpretivism and
positivism are the two philosophical approach that are deployed in scientific
studies. The positivism mainly covers the facts and facets to conduct
scientific investigation, while interpretivism concerns with establishing detailed
insights of the phenomena to shed the light on the key findings and truthful
results (Irshaidat, 2019). Therefore, this study will integrate interpretivism
because it will be helpful in analysing multiple scholars’ perspective and
evaluate each phenomenon studied in the previous literature regarding the
simplification of procurement process through e-commerce.
1.2 Research Design
The stage of research design encompasses ways to integrate different
methods and techniques for delivering potential outcomes. There are two types
of research design including, qualitative and quantitative. The quantitative research
design is only useful when examining the numeric and statistical insights to
deliver accurate results but is time-consuming. However, in this study, the
core focus will be to conduct narrative and secondary studies’ review
concerning the procurement process simplification using e-commerce factors with
the organisation which will be accurately done using qualitative research
design. The purpose of using qualitative research design is its emphasis on
descriptive insights and assessing why and how of the phenomena in a detailed
manner without investing much time.
1.3 Data Collection
The process of data collection is crucial in the research as it
helps in validating and synthesising relevant information on the variable to
deliver key outcomes. Primary and secondary data collection are two main techniques
used. The primary data is time-consuming as it involves in-person interaction
through surveys, interviews, observations and experiments to reveal key aspects
of the topic. While, the researcher will utilise secondary data because it will
be feasible in assessing the scholars’ perspective and narrative shared in
previous studies, explore the gap, and find key aspects that relate to the key
factors of e-commerce and its influence on the reduction of complexity in
procurement process. The benefit of secondary data collection is the feasibility
and time-consuming process of gathering reliable information in a detailed
manner.
3.4 Data Analysis
The data analysis phase involves the modelling, inspection, and
analysis of useful information gathered so that better conclusion is achieved.
Since the proposed research will be based on secondary-qualitative research
technique, therefore the qualitative analysis will be done using content
analysis technique. Renz et al., (2018) defined that content analysis is
considered as research tool used to determine the presence of certain themes,
words and texts that are viable to produce desired understanding of the
information gathered about the topic. Therefore, this technique will be
beneficial in modelling accurate information and then generate findings that
highlight the key factors of e-commerce and their influence on the complexity
reduction of procurement process.
3.5 Research Ethics
The stage of research ethics is considered prominent part of the
research to comply with ethical and social responsibility principles for
conducting academic study. Similarly, in this study research will ensure the
confidentiality of the information gathered by storing it to University
official database so that it can be misused and remain saved which will be
deleted after final submission. Moreover, copyright infringement activities
will be avoided alongside plagiarism so that originality of the content will be
maintained. Lastly, the researcher will cite all the scholars’ work throughout
the study so that work will be acknowledged.