Abstract

The paper examines how multiple forms of external pressure affect bringing trading partners aboard business-to-business transaction platforms. Differentiating between coercive, enforcement-type pressure (discussed mostly in literature on inter-organizational information systems) and gentle, enticement‑oriented pressure (considered mainly in digital-platform literature), a study drawing on a survey of 121 organizations examined the relative effectiveness of each form of pressure on firms’ decision to use an electronic invoicing platform. The results suggest that coercion-aligned measures are more effective than enticement-based ones in getting trading partners to adopt such a platform. Analysis revealed two interesting exceptions: enticement exerts greater persuasion power than enforcement does over organizations that display high invoicing intensity or use cloud technologies. The key contribution of the study lies in interpreting these context-related findings pertaining to the two types’ relative effectiveness and discussing them against the backdrop of both digital-platform scholarship and the literature on inter-organizational information systems.

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