An empirical test of the impact of electronic commerce on organizations

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kreindler, Michael L.^a | Maislish, Roni^a | Wang, Shouhong^{b; *}

Affiliations: [a] University of Derby, Derech Ha-Shalom 3, Tel Aviv, Israel, Tel.: +972 6 527 7593; E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] | [b] University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA 02747 USA, Tel.: +1 508 999 8579; E-mail: [email protected]

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author.

Abstract: There have been propositions in the electronic commerce literature that electronic commerce systems stimulate organizational changes. This empirical study evaluated the relationship between the transition to electronic commerce and the organizational change in firms. Forty-four companies are investigated. Six hypotheses were tested. The findings showed that the transition to electronic commerce resulted in organizational redesign and improvement in dealing with customers and suppliers, had positive effects on formal communication and information flows in the organizations, but had inconclusive impact on human performance in the organizations.

Keywords: Electronic commerce, organizational design, organizational change, human performance

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-2004-23105

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 59-68, 2004