Organizational Characteristics of B2B Adopters in the Canadian Manufacturing Sector

This paper presents selected preliminary results from a study of B2B e-commerce

adoption by Canadian manufacturing firms. The goal of the broad research project

IS to describe the behaviour of Canadian manufacturers with respect to adoption

of B2B technologies and to identify factors which distinguish adopters from non-adopters

of B2B. The study focuses on the organizational characteristics of

adopters of B2B e-commerce technologies and attempts to outline the features

which differentiate them from non-adopters. Preliminary analysis shows the

existence of three distinct B2B adopter types: non-adopters, partial-adopters and

full-adopters. Leadership related variables appear to be the most important

determinants of adoption.