Implementing e-Procurement Initiatives: Critical Failure Factors and Lessons Learnt Across the Public Sector

Lessons learnt from failure present a valuable learning opportunity for organisations provided the causes of the problem can be understood. Furthermore, by addressing Critical Failure Factors (CFFs) which categorise any event as less than effective is a negative in the process of e-Procurement implementation. While some studies of e-Procurement have focused mainly on Critical Success Factors (CSFs), there are few assessments of on CFFs. This paper is part of a much larger research project the objective of which is to identify and validate e-Procurement CSFs. This paper presents the results of the open coding process arising from an application of grounded theory to address a gap in the e-Procurement literature and proposes a model of CFFs that can be used to validate identified CSFs. Furthermore, a comparison of CSFs and CFFs, though very little evidenced in the e-Procurement literature, can be very revealing in terms of understanding best practice factors that aim to improve the implementation of e-Procurement initiatives. The perspective of this paper is that the commonality among the identified CFFs will further confirm the CSFs whereas the differences will be the opportunity for further research in this area.