The Effect of E-Commerce Adoption on the Alignment among Traded Product, Buyer-Supplier Relationship, and Supply Chain Structure

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to suggest conceptually the feature of alignment

between SCM strategy and SC structure, and also disclose theoretically the

effect of E-commerce adoption on such alignment. For this, this paper dtfines

number of suppliers, number of tiers. the level of SC integration, order

penetration point, lead time, and safety stock as supply chain structural

issues, and sets the charactel-istics of traded products and buyer-supplier

relationship as key strategic issues for efficient construction of supply chain

structure. Also, E-commerce adoption is designed as a moderate variable for

the alignment between SC structure and the two strategic issues. Such effort

suggests a conceptual framework to develop an advisable set of' E-commerce

adoption strategies for the efficicncy improvement of overall supply chain

management. The empirical research model proposed from such conceptual framework can be used to establish E-supply chain progression paradigm and

new dimensional manufacturing strategy framework in E-commerce era.