Electronic Data Interchange and Small Organizations:
Adoption and Impact of Technology

Charalambos L. Iacovou, Izak Benbasat, Albert S. Dexter

Interview Guides

Two guides were used to collect the data. The first guide was used in interviews with managers from non EDI-capable organizations. The second guide was used in interviews with managers from EDI-capable firms. A list of the variables and the numbers of the related questions is also provided for each guide.

• Guide 1: for non EDI-capable firms
• Guide 2: for EDI-capable firms

INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR NON EDI-CAPABLE FIRMS

List of Variables and Related Question Numbers:

• Firm demographics: 1-12;
• EDI adoption facilitators and inhibitors: 13-14;
• Perceived benefits: 15-17, 39;

• EDI readiness

  High slack resources indicators: 9-11, 19-20, 57;

  IT sophistication: 21-36;

• External pressure

  from competitors: 37-38, 40;

  from trading partners: 41-48;

  from third parties: 49;

• EDI adoption: 12;
• Intention to adopt: 18, 54;
• Expected integration: 50-51;
• Expected impact: 52.

Interview Questions:

1. Name of organization:

2. Date/time of interview:

3. Respondent:

4. Title/department:

5. Please describe your responsibilities:

6. How many people does your company currently employ?
   Management:
   Professional:
   Clerical:
   Other:

7. Please describe the business in terms of its services and products:

8. Please describe the external environment of your organization. What is the structure and size of the industry?
   Please describe whom your competitors are:
   Please describe whom your customers are:
   Please describe whom your suppliers are:

9. Is your industry is in its growth, maturity, or declining stage?

10. Are there major technological and/or business changes taking place within your industry or is it relatively stable? What are they?

11. Do you feel that major changes (such as introduction of new products, retraining of employees, targeting new markets) are occurring within the internal environment of your company or is the internal environment relatively stable?

12. What methods do you use to exchange documents/business information with your trading partners?

13. What are the three main reasons (in order of their importance) why your company should adopt EDI systems such as the B.C. Buy Smart program?

14. What are the three main problems or concerns (in order of their importance) that inhibit your company from adopting an EDI system such as the B.C. Buy Smart project?

15. Can you list the potential benefits of the EDI technology (in order of importance) over the current system you utilize to exchange business documents/information with your trading partners?

16. Do you feel the use of EDI could improve the ...
    service you provide to customers? How?
    efficiency of the operations? How?
    control of the business operations? How?
    flexibility of your operations? How?
    relationship with your partners? How?

17. Given the potential costs and benefits of EDI, do you feel that the adoption of an EDI system, such as the B.C. Buy Smart, is justified? Why? Why not?

18. Does your company intend to adopt an EDI system in the near future? If yes, what made the management decide to adopt EDI?

19. Is the cost of the EDI investment an important issue for your company? Do you think your company has available the necessary financial resources to acquire EDI technology (software; hardware;training; usage fees)?

20. Do you feel that the management of your firm will be willing to spend the necessary financial resources to acquire the EDI system? If not, why?

21. Is the required technical expertise for an EDI investment an important issue for your company?

22. Do you think your company owns the necessary expertise and know-how to acquire the technology? Why? Why not?

23. Is there is someone in your company who has the knowledge and expertise to manage an EDI environment?

24. In case you decide to adopt EDI, do you feel that you will need to...
    acquire new hardware?
    get the expertise/help of outside consultants? If yes,who?

25. Concerning your current computer applications, which of your business processes are managed or supported by computerized systems?

26. Are these systems integrated?

27. What types of hardware does your company currently own?

28. Is there a LAN in your company?

29. Do people in your firm use e-mail?

30. Does your firm develop software in house?

31. How many MIS people are in your organization?

32. What type of expertise/training do they have?

33. What is the position of the manager of the MIS department in your firm? To whom (what level) does he/she report?

34. What is the budget of the MIS department in your company?

35. Does your firm hire outside consultants to assist you with the development of computer systems?

36. Overall, what is the level of computer sophistication in your company?

37. Can you estimate the percentage of your competitors that use EDI?

38. Does the ability of your competitors to transact via EDI place pressure on your company to adopt? How?

39. Do you feel that the lack of EDI in your company limits your competitiveness? In what ways?

40. Do you think that if more competitors start using EDI, you will have to use it too?

41. Can you estimate the percentage of your trading partners that use EDI?

42. Has any of them asked you to adopt an EDI system? If yes, why haven't you decided to adopt?

43. As you know, the B.C. government announced the introduction of a computerized document/information exchange system, the B.C. Buy Smart project.
    (a) If the B.C. government recommends that your firm uses EDI to accept orders, transmit invoices, and receive electronic payment, would you be willing to do so? Why or why not?
    (b) If not, if the B.C. government promises that it will give preferential treatment to EDI-capable suppliers, would you then be willing to adopt an EDI system? Why or why not?
    (c) If not, if the B.C. government states that it will only deal with EDI-capable suppliers, would you then be willing to adopt an EDI system? Why or why not?
    Please note that this is only a hypothetical situation and your answer will be used for research purposes only.

44. What is the percentage of your total sales that are made to the B.C. government (in dollars and volume)?

45. What is the percentage of your total profits that are attributed to sales to the B.C. government?

46. Do you feel that these figures (sales and profits) will increase in the next five years? By how much?

47. How many other customers do you have other than the B.C. government?

48. In terms of sales, how many of them do you consider large?

49. Is there any other organization, association, or other agency that can influence your decision to adopt EDI? How?

50. Should you decide to adopt the B.C. Buy Smart or any other EDI system, would you attempt to integrate it with your other computerized processes? Why or why not?
    If yes, do you feel you have the available financial resources to do so?
    If yes, do you feel you have the required technical resources and know-how to do so?

51. Should you decide to adopt an EDI system would you attempt to use it to transact with other trading partners (other than its provider)? Why or why not?

52. If you decide to adopt an EDI system or B.C. Buy Smart, what kind of impact do you expect its usage to have on your business?

53. Is there any other concern regarding EDI technology, its costs, benefits, and impacts or any other issue that you would like to address?

54. Regarding the B.C. Buy Smart project, what are the three most important concerns you have?

55. How likely are you to adopt B.C. Buy Smart in the near future? Why?

56. What features would you like B.C. Buy Smart to include?

57. Can you give me an estimate of your...
    (a) current liabilities?
    (b) cash and cash equivalent assets (securities, etc)?
    (c) working capital?
    (d) general, administrative and selling expenses?
    (e) total revenues (sales) for the past year?

INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR EDI-CAPABLE FIRMS

List of Variables and Related Question Numbers:

• Firm demographics: 1-12;
• EDI adoption facilitators and inhibitors: 24-26;
• Perceived benefits: 23, 27-31;

• EDI readiness

  High slack resources indicators: 9-11, 32-33, 74;

  IT sophistication: 34-48;

• External pressure

  from competitors: 49-51;

  from trading partners: 53-57, 61-65;

  from third parties: 66;

• EDI systems description: 12-17;
• Intention to adopt: 72;
• Integration: 18-22;
• Impact: 52, 58-60, 67-69.

Interview Questions:

1. Name of organization:

2. Date/time of interview:

3. Respondent:

4. Title/department:

5. Please describe your responsibilities:

6. How many people does your company currently employ?
   Management:
   Professional:
   Clerical:
   Other:

7. Please describe the business in terms of its services and products:

8. Please describe the external environment of your organization. What is the structure and size of the industry?
   Please describe whom your competitors are:
   Please describe whom your customers are:
   Please describe whom your suppliers are:

9. Is your industry is in its growth, maturity, or declining stage?

10. Are there major technological and/or business changes taking place within your industry or is it relatively stable? What are they?

11. Do you feel that major changes (such as introduction of new products, retraining of employees, targeting new markets) are occurring within the internal environment of your company or is the internal environment relatively stable?

12. What methods do you use to exchange documents/business information with your trading partners?

13. With whom do you currently participate in an EDI link?

14. Please describe your current EDI system and its source:

15. For how long has your company been using EDI?

16. What types of documents/information do you process via EDI?

17. Did any changes/enhancements take place since the initial introduction of the EDI system in your firm? What were they?

18. Is the EDI system integrated with any other computerized processes in your company or does your firm have to process the incoming EDI documents manually after they are received and manually input the data for the outgoing EDI messages?
    If integrated, which processes are integrated with the EDI system?
    If integrated, what percentage of the EDI messages are processed manually?

19. What percentage of the total business documents that your company exchanges with its trading partners are transacted via EDI?

20. What percentage of your company's sales/purchases can be transacted via EDI (in dollars and volume)?

21. What percentage of your suppliers are using EDI in transactions with your company?

22. What percentage of your customers are using EDI in transacting with your company?

23. From your point of view, who benefits the most from this EDI system? Your company, suppliers, or customers? Why?

24. What are the three main reasons (in order of their importance) that made your company decide to adopt EDI?

25. What were the three main concerns (in order of their importance) that your company had to deal with before adopting EDI? Did these concerns materialize?

26. What were the three main problems (in order of their importance)that your firm had to manage while implementing or using EDI?

27. Can you list the benefits you are currently receiving from the EDI system (in order of importance if possible)?

28. Given the costs and benefits of an EDI system, do you think its adoption is justified? Why?

29. Which of these benefits you did not expect, but realized after the introduction of EDI in your firm?

30. Are there any benefits that you expected but did not achieve?

31. Do you expect the benefits you receive from EDI to change in the future? How?

32. Was the cost of the EDI investment an important issue for your company when considering the adoption of the technology? Did you think your firm had the necessary resources to acquire EDI technology?

33. Did you feel that the resources that the management was willing to allocate on the EDI system were adequate? If no, why?

34. When your company was first considering EDI, was the technological expertise which was needed for the project an important issue? Did you think that your company had the necessary expertise to acquire the technology?

35. Concerning your other computer systems, which of your business processes are managed or supported by computerized systems?

36. Are the systems integrated?

37. What types of hardware does your company currently own?

38. Is there a LAN in your company?

39. Do people in your firm use e-mail?

40. Does your firm develop software in house?

41. How many MIS people are in your organization?

42. What type of expertise/training do they have?

43. What is the position of the manager of the MIS department in your firm? To whom (what level) does he/she report?

44. What is the budget of the MIS department in your company?

45. Does your firm hire outside consultants to assist you with the development of computer systems?

46. Overall, what is the level of computer sophistication in your company?

47. At the time of the EDI adoption, what was your firm's computer sophistication level? Did it differ from the current one? How?

48. To develop the current EDI system did you have to...
    acquire new hardware?
    get the expertise/help of outside consultants?
    If yes, who?

49. Can you estimate the percentage of your competitors that currently use EDI?

50. What percentage of your competitors were EDI-capable before you adopted EDI?

51. Did the fact that some of them were EDI-capable influence your decision to adopt EDI?

52. Do you think your firm's ability to transact via EDI makes it more competitive than other firms in your industry? Why?

53. Can you estimate the percentage of your trading partners that currently use EDI?

54. What percentage of your trading partners were EDI-capable before you adopted EDI?

55. Did your company initiate EDI or did you have some pressure from any of your trading partners? If yes, which one?

56. Did any of your trading partners suggested or requested that your firm adopted EDI?

57. What would have happened if your company didn't become EDI-capable?

58. Has the relationship with the EDI partner change since your adoption of EDI? In what way?

59. Are there any extra benefits in your relationship with that partner now that your firm is EDI-capable?

60. Did EDI affect your relationship with your other trading partners? How?

61. What is the percentage of your total sales/purchases that are made to/from this partner (in dollars and volume)?

62. If the partner is a customer, what is the percentage of your total profits attributed to sales to the EDI partner?

63. Do you feel that these estimates (sales/purchases and profits) will increase in the next five years? By how much?

64. How many other customers/suppliers do you have other than the EDI partner?

65. How many of them do you consider large in terms of sales to/purchases from them?

66. Is there any other organization, association, or other agency that influenced your decision to adopt EDI? How?

67. From your experience in using EDI, what advantages and disadvantages did your company realize due to its use?

68. What was the impact of EDI on your operations?

69. Do you feel that the use of EDI improved the ...
    service you provide to customers? How?
    efficiency of the operations? How?
    control of the business operations? How?
    flexibility of your operations? How?
    relationship with your partners? How?

70. Is there any other concern regarding EDI technology, its costs, benefits, and impacts or any other issue that you would like to address?

71. Regarding the B.C. Buy Smart project, what are the three most important concerns you have?

72. How likely are you to adopt B.C. Buy Smart in the near future? Why?

73. What features would you like B.C. Buy Smart to include?

74. Can you give me an estimate of your...
    (a) current liabilities?
    (b) cash and cash equivalent assets (securities, etc)?
    (c) working capital?
    (d) general, administrative and selling expenses?
    (e) total revenues (sales) for the past year?
    Can you give me an estimate of the same figures at the time of EDI adoption?

Abstract from MIS Quarterly.