Diffusion and management of electronic data interchange: barriers and opportunities in the UK Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Industries

This paper is based on evidence from a survey, conducted during 1992, investigating the adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI) among nearly 200 firms in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector within the UK. In particular, it focuses on the factors behind the adoption and diffusion of EDI, and the barriers to its uptake and spread. It also analyzes some of the strategic, organizational and managerial issues behind its implementation and, development. The survey highlights the relatively slow rate of adoption of EDI within this sector and hey problems that inhibit its uptake. These include issues of costs, standards and the increasingly fragmented nature of purchasing and logistics that results from reorganization within the UK healthcare system.