Inter-organizational trust in EDI adoption: the case of Ford Motor Company and PBR Limited in Australia

Inter‐organizational‐systems such as EDI have been the main form of business to business e‐commerce application in the automotive industry for the last two decades. However, previous studies in EDI adoption mostly examined environmental, organizational and technological factors. This study examines behavioral dimensions of trading partner trust in EDI adoption via a qualitative interpretative case study conducted between an automotive manufacturer and their first tier supplier. While trading partner trust was observed to be an implicit factor embedded in pre‐arranged contractual agreements, the findings of this study suggests that trading partner trust is important for cooperative long term trading relationships and contributes to increased awareness on the importance of trading partner trust in EDI adoption.

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