Factors in the Adoption of Third-Party B2B Portals in the Textile Industry

For this study. 121 Hong Kong garment manufacturing firms were surveyed on their adoption of a third-party B2B portal, which utilizes an Internet-based EDI technology using XML. Using path analysis, the impact of underlying factors such as CEO innovativeness and attitude toward IT. perceived external pressure, and perceived benefits and hindrances are studied. In particular, the effect of firm size on the adoption of the technology, which is our major contribution, is fully investigated in this study. Our findings, which are consistent with previous studies on adoption, indicate that perceived benefits, perceived hindrances. and perceived external pressure have a strong effect on the decision to adopt a third-party B2B portal. Firms that perceive more benefits, less hindrance, or greater external pressure to adopt a technology will be more likely to adopt that technology. Moreover, the size of a firm is an important factor. Larger manufacturers will perceive to have less external pressure, more hindrances, and fewer benefits to adoption than smaller ones. Among these three factors, firm size has large impact on both perceived external pressure and perceived hindrances and small impact on perceived benefits. In addition, the existence of some hidden factors such as existing market position and partner relationships would help to explain the direct effect of firm size. Larger manufacturers may be more unwilling to adopt a third-party B2B portal because of their unique market position and/or already connect with their clothing companies through intranet. These factors enable us to achieve a clear understanding of the adoption of a technological business solution for inter-organizational communications.