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While much attention has recently been focused on the problems facing Internet start‐ups, the challenge of e‐business affects a much broader constituency of organisations. For established companies, the key challenge is one of change. Such companies must rethink fundamental aspects of company strategy, which may lead to a radical overhaul of existing ways of doing business, with company structure and culture becoming much more customer‐focused. Resistance at all company levels may need to be overcome, with a need to build commitment and consensus around e‐business strategies. However, companies must also deal with a paradox in e‐business change. As the “dot.com” crash showed, there are many strengths in “bricks and mortar” companies. Evolving a new business model based around “e‐enablement” must therefore avoid the “baby and bathwater syndrome”. Only by recognising and rising to these challenges and dilemmas, and devoting sufficient time, resources and expertise to them, will companies make a success of their e‐business ventures.

This paper presents a dynamic model for e‐business strategy derived from the results of a longitudinal analysis of enterprise resource planning (ERP) enabled organisations.

This involved a study of 11 international ERP‐enabled organisations over a four‐year period using multiple interviews and extensive secondary data collection. Three separate research models were used to analyse different stages of e‐business growth and the results of this multi‐stage analysis consolidated into a staged model of e‐business transformation (eBT).

The model focuses on realising the benefits of B2B interaction through the alignment of ERP with different e‐business strategies, increasing emphasis on employee empowerment and successful management of value alliances.

The findings provide practical guidance to managers implementing e‐business systems through integrated ERP implementations.

The study demonstrates the application of a comprehensive research model based on three previously validated research frameworks for e‐business strategy.

This study aims to examine usage and deployment trends of e‐business technologies within the small and medium‐sized enterprise (SMEs) community in Wales, since the turn of the millennium. Analysis of prior surveys such as the Department of Trade and Industry and Federation of Small Business reveals poor adoption levels of basic information and communication technology deployment and minimal uptake of sophisticated technologies in comparison to other UK regions. Uptake of e‐business was assessed through a quantitative survey of SMEs and contrasted against prior studies undertaken within Wales since 2000 to identify trends and levels of adoption.

The study is comprised of a survey of 500 SMEs including a representative population from diverse geographical and economic regions within Wales. The survey deployed a proportionately stratified and representative sampling technique, whereby two‐thirds of the enterprises selected were micro sized classified enterprises with no employees to ensure compatibility with the Welsh SME population.

Levels of e‐business uptake within prior surveys varied significantly, due to the contrasting nature and size of the samples. As a consequence, several previous surveys presented an overly optimistic picture of e‐business adoption and results must, therefore, be treated with caution. The authors' own survey revealed lower utilisation levels of e‐business than prior studies, suggesting sophisticated use of e‐business was limited, especially within the smaller SME size classifications.

To achieve increased e‐business uptake, it is critical that there is a long‐term strategic vision by policy makers to ensure coordinated action by relevant public and private sector groups. Short‐term strategies must be avoided and policy makers must drive an agenda for change by ensuring bodies, such as enterprises support agencies, academia and public and private sectors undertake complimentary activities that encourage e‐business adoption. This study will be of value to academia, the SME community and key public sector stakeholders in the formulation of policy for e‐business development and deployment.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the risks managers and individual supply chains perceive from e-business.

This research takes a long-term, staged view of the risks managers and individual supply chains perceive from e-business. By taking a two-stage approach, investigating four supply chains at a three year interval, the research considers perceived risks from e-business and the extent to which these risks obtained.

E-business has the potential to deliver substantial benefits, but it also involves new and different risks. This research finds that small firms (SMEs) adopted a “watching brief” rather than implemented e-business. Between the two studies it emerges that e-business can support rather than detract from inter-organisational relationships. Global forces are in evidence in terms of low cost competition, but low cost competitors are not e-enabled.

Limitations, pragmatism and opportunism in the sampling is acknowledged. For example, the work and concepts that led to the expectation of e-business dominating and decimating industrial supply chains may have been based in chains more open to external forces than the ones examined here. Further research is required that identifies the minimum critical mass necessary to retain national manufacturing capacity at a chain or sector level, and empirical work is needed on the suggested link between supply chain stability and certainty of payment. The cases here are based on four UK supply chains, so various chain forms are likely to have been excluded.

This research, by taking a staged approach and going back to the same chain and reviewing perceived risks, identifies how the build up of numerous – but small – events, for example factory closures, can aggregate over time to be just as significant as high profile, headline-worthy risks. Methods that produce a snapshot such as a one-off survey may be inadequate for fully exploring an area such as risk. Especially if the risks are hard to assess and are biased toward high profile events – catastrophic risks rather than accumulations of smaller, less noticeable risks.

A great deal has been written in recent years about the internet and the emergence of e‐businesses operating in the global e‐economy. Although a small proportion of the expanding literature on this topic is based on empirically rigorous research, the bulk of publications tend to be of limited value to small business owner/managers. Furthermore, these publications present a superficial or idealised view of economic transactions that take place over the internet. In terms of general approaches to e‐business, there exist a limited number of “core” theoretical and practical publications to guide a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties, including small business owner/managers. Conspicuously missing from the burgeoning specialist literature is the topic of training and human resources in relation to the adoption and management of small e‐businesses. To redress the imbalance, this article proposes a tentative framework for a research agenda in training and related human resource issues, to support and inform a rapidly growing sector of small e‐businesses, both in Britain and in other industrially developed or developing countries.

The impact of e‐business on export management companies (EMCs) has been debated for some time and several reasons for their survival have been forwarded. Based upon the resource‐based perspective of the firm, this study provides a far more fundamental reason for the survival of the well‐established EMCs‐their market‐based assets. Furthermore, this study analyzes the impact of e‐business proliferation on the well‐established EMCs transaction creating and physical fulfillment exporting services and their efficiency and effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize e‐business adoption and to generate understanding of the range of factors affecting the adoption process. The paper also aims at exploring the perceived impact of e‐business adoption on logistics‐related processes.

Case study research, by conducting in‐depth interviews in eight companies.

E‐business adoption is not exclusively a matter of resources. Increased e‐business adoption and impact are caused by increased operational compatibility, as well as increased levels of collaboration. In terms of e‐business impact this mainly refers to cycle time reductions and quality improvements, rather than direct cost reductions as reported by other authors.

The intrinsic weakness of the research method and the way concepts are operationalized limits the ability to generalize findings.

Managers should emphasize developing their relationships with their suppliers/customers, in an effort to do common e‐business investments, and should aim to increase their partners' commitment to the use of these applications.

This paper provides empirical evidence from a sector where limited research efforts have taken place. Explanations can be helpful to other researchers involved in the understanding of the adoption of e‐business and its impact.

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.

The paper critiques a range of theories and evaluates their ability to provide a lens for explaining the idiosyncratic nature of small firms and their e‐business adoption decisions.

This literature review firstly summarises the existing research evidence that shows that small firms are idiosyncratic when it comes to e‐business adoption. It then critiques theories commonly used in the literature in this field to examine the extent to which they take this small firm idiosyncrasy into account when explaining e‐business adoption decisions.

The critical analysis shows that no commonly‐used theory adequately explains small firm adoption of e‐business because each omits important aspects of small firm idiosyncrasy. The analysis suggests that an integrated theoretical framework is needed. Preliminary ideas on this framework are provided.

Existing research generally applies a small number of selected theories and formulates research models of adoption factors. However, there is no systematic analysis of theories in this field and no consensus about theoretical frameworks. This paper addresses this limitation of the literature by critically evaluating the commonly used theories in terms of their individual suitability as lenses for explaining small firm e‐business adoption.

This work aims to develop a process model for the migration of the traditional firm to an appropriate e‐business strategy and architecture.

The work is based on a range of published works and professional experience, combining narrative with analysis.

This complex model addresses the multiplicity of factors that must be included in effective e‐business migration. The model addresses technology, business processes, strategy and the consequent organizational change.

Focuses on a model that can serve as a basis for dispelling a number of myths reflected in current e‐business migration and implementation efforts.