The Importance of Industry Context in Technology-Mediated Exchanges

This article examines e-marketplace adoption difficulties from a contextualist perspective. The analysis of industrial characteristics will unearth the adopter’s supply chain practices and the contextual features which are unfavorable for e-marketplace deployment. To gain a deeper understanding, this research examines an unsuccessful e-marketplace adoption for agricultural industry in China. The tension created by the these two incongruent contexts results in a misaligned market, as a free-market principle (assumed to be an integral part of the e-marketplace) is imposed on an agricultural market exchange which is characterized by a regulated business environment and a monopolistic market, and which emphasizes variances in product quality, tacit product specification, exclusive suppliers, and spotty purchasing. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed with reference to technology adoption and technology-organization alignment literature.