Enabling and Inhibiting Factors in Adoption of Electronic-Reverse Auctions: a longitudinal case study in grocery retailing

The paper aims at exploring the factors that enable or inhibit the use of electronic reverse auctions (E-RAs) in the buying process of large food retail organizations. Through an in-depth case-study analysis based on interviews, internal documents examination and direct observation, we studied E-RAs conducted by an Italian-based retailer during a two year-time period. This approach enables us to state that the E-RAs’ use depends not only from product- and market-specific factors, as asserted by the extant literature on the topic, but also from intra- and inter-organisational and strategic factors. Propositions are developed to stimulate thought and provide guidance for future research.