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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion related to the antecedents of the extent of e‐business use and the effect of this level on changing strategy, management and marketing.

The authors use data from 691 retailers in seven European countries. Information is obtained from the survey of the “e‐Business W@tch”. Data analysis was performed using biprobit estimation. The sample is divided into two groups depending on the level of e‐commerce of the countries.

Results suggest that the e‐business use implies changes in the firm's strategy, management and marketing in all the countries studied. Differences between the two groups of countries are minimal. The main factors that influence the level of e‐business use are IT expertise and perceived benefits.

The limitations are related to the nature of the data and concretely the main limitation lies in the consequences construct. The data provided are very general and it would be useful to specify what kind of change is generated.

Antecedents of the level of use are similar for all the countries, so there might be additional factors that explain why, in some countries, retailers have adopted a different level of e‐business. Managers have to take into account that the adoption and use of a higher level of e‐business requires changes in all the functional areas. The decision of adopting and using e‐business should be taken seriously.

Most research has focused on analyzing the antecedents of e‐business use in a single country. However, this paper presents some new evidence on the factors that influence the extent of e‐business use for two groups of countries. Furthermore, previous research has suggested that changes might be necessary within the firm due to the e‐business use but there is little empirical evidence on the internal impact of e‐business use. This paper provides a first approximation to the general areas in which managers had to made changes.

Nowadays, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are incrementally using e-business tools in order to compete in an extremely hostile market and gain global access. The importance of e-business adoption for the economic success and survival of SMEs creates a very interesting field of research. The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a conceptual framework that investigates the factors affecting the e-business adoption decision in SMEs.

The examination of the proposed conceptual framework was made with the use of a newly developed structured questionnaire that was distributed to a group of Greek SMEs. The questionnaire was distributed to 600 companies, while 161 usable questionnaires were finally returned. exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, linear regression methods and the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique were used to test the research hypotheses.

The proposed model explains 71 per cent of the variance of e-business adoption, with firm size, firm scope, IT infrastructure and internet skills being the most important e-business adoption drivers (with firm size being the most significant). On the other hand, CEOs knowledge, adoption cost, and competitive pressure do not seem to play an important role in the e-business adoption decision.

A limitation stemming from the implemented methodology is the use of self report scales to measure the constructs of the proposed model. Moreover, the present paper lacks a longitudinal approach, since it is cross-sectional and provides a static picture of e-business adoption.

The paper makes an effort in order to point out areas that companies should emphasise in order to successfully adopt e-business and, therefore, harvest its potential benefits. Certain practical implications are offered in the final part of the paper.

First, the present study places SMEs in the centre of its attention, while the contemporary research mostly examines the implementation of e-business practices in large organisations. Second, the present study proposes a three-dimensional conceptual framework, including technological, organisational and environmental context. Such a multidimensional approach has randomly been explored in the existing literature. Third, the results of the study may be generalised in other developed countries with similar economic realities and yield interesting outcomes for practitioners in these countries.

There are two purposes of this paper: first, to analyze the effect of size and other organizational factors (IT knowledge, IT external support and the level of employees' education) on the use of e‐business; and second, to identify similarities and differences among these factors in micro, small, medium‐sized and large enterprises.

The proposed model is empirically tested using data from the Sectorial e‐Business W@tch survey. A logit estimation for the whole sample and for each type of firm size has been implemented on the use of e‐business.

The study finds positive and significant effects of all the organizational factors on the intensity of e‐business use. When analyzing the effect of size, it was found that medium‐sized and large firms are more likely to use e‐business more intensively. Although medium‐sized and large firms are similar, some differences have been found between small and medium‐sized firms. Only small firms use IT outsourcing as a key factor to use e‐business.

This study is based on a cross‐sectional data set. Longitudinal research would be needed for comparing results over time. Future studies could focus on the use of each type of e‐business technology, instead of a global measure of e‐business use. Future research could also analyze the differences of e‐business adoption rates among countries.

The paper concludes that small and micro firms are less likely to conduct e‐business than medium‐sized and large firms. An important influence on the use of e‐business is workforce education, implying that training could substitute hiring IT employees. Outsourcing IT activities is a suitable strategy only for small firms.

The paper contributes to the literature on e‐business with new evidence of the importance of size and human capital. Additionally, an analysis for each firm size has been done, which allows comparison of results.

Government initiatives are continuously being designed to create stable and supportive environments for developing new industries. Presents a conceptual model for use by governments in creating and sustaining an appropriate climate that facilitates the national adoption of e‐business. It focuses specifically on the needs of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Also suggests six categories of e‐business readiness metrics and measures to be used for assessing how a country is performing in terms of providing a positive e‐business readiness climate. Examples of innovative initiatives are provided from Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, and Singapore. Concludes that a balance among attention to infrastructure components has not yet been achieved in these countries.

In response to a turbulent industrial environment, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), organizations have widely adopted e-business to improve their processes. This study aims to propose a model that encapsulates the determinants and outcomes of e-business adoption.

The determinants and outcomes of e-business adoption were tested using data gathered from 282 managers and analysed using structural equation modelling techniques.

The results indicated that owner support, perceived ease of use and government support were important determinants that influence e-business adoption. Attitude, competitive pressureand relative advantage were not significant. Regarding outcomes, e-business adoption had a major impact on SME functioning and operational progress; however, it had no influence on competitive advantage.

By ascertaining the determinants and outcomes of e-business adoption, the findings provide e-business practitioners and managers with guidelines that can encourage more efficient and effective e-business adoption within their organizations. The results also provide a basis for more precise e-business studies to be conducted in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically examine a comprehensive model that attempts to identify the factors that explain competitive advantage of implementing electronic business (e-business) in an emerging market. It seeks to fulfill an inevitable lack of conducting rigorous and intensive empirical studies on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in which the internet use and e-business applications are on the rise.

This research is descriptive in nature where a quantitative research methodology is deployed. Data are collected using both interviews and e-survey for a sample of 302 Egyptian companies serving in diverse industries. A multivariate partial least squares technique is employed to analyze the collected data.

This study explores various e-business modes and applications widely employed in the MENA region. It also addresses a set of e-business-driven competitive advantages that are mainly generated from supportive ICT environment, major market forces and strategic opportunities, and at last, from electronically driven customers’ relationship initiatives. A number of e-business barriers are claimed to moderate the relationship between those forces and the resulting competitive advantages.

Although this research main framework incorporates important variables based on theoretical and empirical foundations, integrating other factors may extend understanding of how these factors, independently and/or interactively, explain the adoption of e-business and its merit to create distinctive competitive advantage.

This work helps managers and e-business experts alike to comprehend the ways through which firms target the applications of e-business technologies to realize a competitive edge in MENA region. It also helps practitioners and professionals comprehend the interrelationship between the type of forces drive e-business based competitive position and key barriers that deteriorate such a connection in emerging markets.

A model that enables scholars to better understanding the e-business phenomenon in MENA market is developed and validated. This model rests on e-business experts’ perspectives, reflections and it is evidently substantiated by past works in the areas.

In 2003 the authors investigated the level of adoption of e‐business by manufacturing firms in Europe. Four company strategies were identified based on different extents of adoption of internet‐based tools for interaction with customers and/or suppliers. The purpose of this paper is to replicate, those analyses using the new release of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) IV. These new results are compared with previous ones in order to determine whether modeling previously described in the literature remains valid.

Data collected in Europe through IMSS III and IV are used. In particular, companies are clustered according to e‐business practices adopted in supply chain management (SCM) and the degree of adoption of e‐business between the two editions of the research is compared. A longitudinal analysis is also conducted using data from companies participating in both editions of the survey.

It is shown that the fundamental aspects of the modeling approach earlier proposed in the literature remain valid, with a higher average level of adoption of e‐business tools in the more recent edition of the study. However, the four‐cluster model is shown to be no longer valid. In the more recent dataset, three clusters emerge. They are characterized by different levels of adoption of e‐business, balanced between e‐commerce and e‐procurement. The longitudinal analysis shows that the firms participating in both editions of the research have changed their strategy, coherently to what the overall sample does.

This paper is focused on the assembly industry and only part of the sample is strictly longitudinal. Further research is needed to relate e‐business strategy with performance and to distinguish among the various tools available.

This paper also shows that the adoption of e‐business is increasing among small and medium firms, even if the practices adopted by any individual company remain limited. Results show that a cautious adoption is preferable to more radical implementation, since some firms have actually reduced their initial efforts to adopt e‐business.

The literature currently lacks extensive, longitudinal studies on e‐business strategies in SCM. The paper shows how the concept has rapidly evolved recently, and it modifies models that are proposed only a few years ago in the face of new data.

This paper aims to improve the understanding of e‐business, competitive advantage and their roles in the UK SMEs. This paper uses case studies to examine what is needed for SMEs to change from an “old” traditional business strategy to a new “e” business strategy.

A range of academic and practitioner literature related to IT, e‐business, and different business models is reviewed. Nine case studies were used to collect information from SMEs in the UK.

It may be possible for some SMEs to integrate the internet technology into an overall strategy and this new technology could lead to a competitive advantage. However, owners' attitudes towards new technology, the knowledge and skills of management and the workforce are recognised as potential problematic issues.

The results of an academic literature review and nine case studies were employed to construct a prototype of an e‐business model named “Competitive Advantage Through E‐business” (CATE‐b). In that respect the CATE‐b prototype model identifies possible e‐business application areas and proposes a plan for e‐business integration.

This paper presents results on the extent to which e‐business and knowledge management approaches are being used by SMEs in the UK. The questionnaire survey and interview results identify the main issues that should concern SMEs if they want to prevail in the emerging business environment and knowledge economy. The main finding is that SMEs have increasingly applied e‐business for B2B and B2C activities, but SMEs are not generally aware of how knowledge can be created through the use of e‐business applications and daily operations. It is envisaged that the findings from this study will provide the main step forward in developing a reference framework and a management model for SMEs to assess, manage and make use of the existing and new e‐business tools and knowledge reflecting the e‐business and knowledge management era.

The present study aims to investigate the impact of organizational capabilities in the successful implementation of e-business. More specifically, the study proposes a three-dimensional conceptual framework, including “organizational learning capabilities”, “knowledge management capabilities” and “organizational readiness”. Such a multidimensional approach has randomly been explored in the existing literature, making the examination of the proposed conceptual framework an interesting research topic.

The proposed conceptual framework was tested on a sample of Greek companies with an online involvement. Information System executives were used as key respondents. The final sample consisted of 213 companies. The reliability and the validity of the newly developed questionnaire were thoroughly examined. Empirical data were analyzed using the “structural equation modeling” technique.

The results of the study reveal that “training availability”, “knowledge level” and “knowledge sharing” are the most significant factors for successfully implementing e-business. Moreover, “firm size” seems to be another important determinant. On the other hand, “technical expertise”, “knowledge accumulation” and “knowledge application” were not found to have a statistically significant impact on the implementation of e-business.

A limitation stemming from the implemented methodology is the use of self-report scales to measure the constructs of the proposed model. Moreover, the present paper lacks a longitudinal approach, as it is cross-sectional and provides a static picture of e-business implementation.

The paper makes an analytical effort to point out areas that companies should emphasize to successfully implement e-business and, therefore, harvest its potential benefits. Certain practical implications are offered in the final part of the paper.

The paper proposes an enhanced conceptual framework that examines vital issues concerning the successful implementation of e-business, thus providing valuable outcomes for decision-makers and academics. Moreover, the results of the study may be generalized in other developed countries whose economy faces similar significant challenges as Greece (e.g. Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, etc.).