ABSTRACT
        The dynamic and increasingly use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has made them a strategic issue in the effort of companies of different sizes and industry sectors, to become more competitive in there business environment.
        Companies in general and Spanish companies in particular, need to integrate the use of ICT in there daily practices and also in the execution of there long term strategies. This is crucial for understanding of the importance of ICT adoption to support business processes, and more specifically to support procurement activities (e-procurement). 
        The investment decisions on ICT innovations are conditioned by the need to obtain real benefits, especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) where resource availability is usually limited. The phenomenon of ICT adoption has been extensively studied from different perspectives, contexts and theoretical models in order to identify common issues that influence decision-making process of the adoption of ICT innovations.
        However, despite the advantages of e-procurement, the evolutionary dynamics of ICT and the increasing opportunities offered by it, especially over Internet, e-procurement has not been widely assumed by  companies, leading to the question: Which are the aspects influencing the adoption process of ICT for  procurement activities in Spanish SMEs in furniture manufacturing?
        This present exploratory work aims to theoretically identify, using secondary sources such as the survey e-Business W@tch 2007, the aspects influencing ICT adoption process in corporate procurement activities for SMEs in furniture industry in Spain.
        To achieve this goal, we developed a conceptual model on corporate e-procurement based on well known and validated theories in the ICT field, such as innovation diffusion, stages of growth, resources and capabilities theories and the TOE (Technology, Organization and Environment) framework. The model is constructed with two key elements which are: the process of adoption of ICT innovations and issues that influence this process.
        The model was empirically tested in a sample of 120 SMEs in the furniture industry in Spain, and the first results show that the adoption of ICT innovations to support corporate procurement activities should be understood as a process and not in a punctual manner. Based on the theory and in the reality of furniture SMEs in Spain, three decision levels to classify companies were defined: pioneers, followers and laggards. This approach takes into account the dynamic character associated to the adoption process of e-procurement.
        The work done also help to identify and analyze technological, organizational and environmental aspects related to the e-procurement adoption process using ordinal logistic regression. We found that the ICT resources available on the company, the pressure received from external suppliers to adopt ICT, and the geographic location of the main suppliers are variables that are to be related with the level of ICT innovation adoption, for electronic procurement activities in the companies studied.
        This research presents a theoretical model adapted to the characteristics of manufacturing SMEs in the furniture industry of Spain. This model contributes to understand the adoption process of ICT innovations for procurement activities, from the perspective of the technological, organizational and environmental contexts that might be associated with this process.
        Finally, the outcome of this research contributes knowledge to the empirical generalization of the topic under research, and provides, to academic community, a starting point for future studies to confirm the validity of the results. Besides, the business community has now a set of aspects to consider in making ICT decisions to support their procurement activities.
        Keywords: e-procurement, Information and communication technologies, SME, furniture industry, TOE framework, levels of ICT innovation adoption, innovation diffusion theory, resources and capabilities theory, stage growth models.