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Organizational determinants of IT adoption in the pharmaceutical distribution sector

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European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose new organizational factors that might explain the differences in the extent and the speed of IT adoption. With this in mind, we carried out an analysis of 16 cases in the pharmaceutical distribution sector in Spain. The results indicate that there are certain intangible assets that favour the introduction and development of IT. Among these are a frank and fluid communication between departments and members of the organization, low levels of conflict, the explicit support of top management towards IT adoption and learning and creative skills of IT-staff. In addition to these factors, we found others that we propose as catalysts of IT adoption. Among these we might mention the special relationship between the member-clients and the company in the case of cooperative firms.

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Acknowledgements

We thank EJIS Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments. We also appreciate the assistance of Antonio Padilla and Ana R. del Águila in the research process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Accounting and Sociology, University of Jaen, Linares, Spain

    Sebastián Bruque-Cámara

  2. Department of Business Administration and Marketing, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain

    Alfonso Vargas-Sánchez

  3. Department of Business Administration, Accounting and Sociology, University of Jaen, Jaén, Spain

    M. Jesús Hernández-Ortiz

Authors
  1. Sebastián Bruque-Cámara
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  2. Alfonso Vargas-Sánchez
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  3. M. Jesús Hernández-Ortiz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastián Bruque-Cámara.

Additional information

This article is dedicated to the victims of 14 nationalities that lost their lives or were injured in the infamous terrorist attack in Madrid on 11 March 2004.

The formula used is x̄ – (x i –x̄), where x̄ is the mean value of the variable, N j in this case.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table A1

Table A2

Table A3

Table A4

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Bruque-Cámara, S., Vargas-Sánchez, A. & Hernández-Ortiz, M. Organizational determinants of IT adoption in the pharmaceutical distribution sector. Eur J Inf Syst 13, 133–146 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000490

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000490

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