E-procurement system adoption in local governments: the role of procurement complexity and organizational structure

The article examines how local governments’ procurement complexity and structure interact to influence e-procurement adoption. Drawing on the survey data of over 400 cities, we find that a centralized structure enhances the likelihood that local governments adopt an e-procurement system to cope with the increasing procurement complexity; while governments with a coordinated structure are less likely to adopt e-procurement as they can rely on the intra-organizational collaboration and information-sharing embedded in the structure to accommodate complex procurements. The findings shed insights on how local governments with different structures can best deal with complex managerial activities and facilitate e-procurement adoption.