The global business environment of today requires companies to be flexible, in order to quickly react and respond to the ever-changing market. Business-to business application integration (B2BAI) can be seen as a tool which enables companies to stay competitive and it is often regarded by the theory as a must for survival in today's fierce business environment. Even though the employment of a B2BAI strategy can generate a lot of advantages and opportunities for companies operating within today's global business environment, there are still many challenges and problems to overcome in order to have a successful B2BAI solution.
It is based on this assertion that the researchers found it highly interesting to see whether the theories on B2BAI could be supported by an empirical research. The researchers in this study, have therefore studied and identified the underlying reasons and the contributing factors to why or why not companies choose to integrate externally, from the perspective of businesses/institutions that have integrated externally and those that are yet to implement it. Further, the practical benefits associated with B2BAI have been identified with possible strategies employed by Ghanaian companies and the reasons for choosing those strategies.
Besides this, a description and an explanation regarding the concepts covered by the field of B2BAI have been made in order to facilitate the understanding for the reader. Since the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons behind and the contributing factors to why or why not companies choose to integrate, questionnaires were sent out to Thirty (30) companies within Eastern and Greater Accra regions. This was done purposely to gather information from both people who have experience in the concept in order to achieve the purpose of the essay.
As mentioned earlier, the scope for this research was all registered companies in Ghana, however it was delimited to a selection of the population, where the sample consists of thirty institutions situated in the Eastern and Greater Accra Regions.
It has been gathered from the empirical findings of this study that globalization is a central factor contributing to why companies chose to invest in B2BAI which also agrees with the theory in regards of that. However, the respondents do not discuss all the advantages of B2BAI mentioned in the theory and emphasize slightly different underlying reasons for choosing to employ a B2BAI strategy. The most central reason for not choosing to employ a B2BAI strategy was according to the respondents due to the lack of knowledge regarding issues relating to the phenomenon and this have not been discussed in the literature review.