Electronic business adoption by European firms: a cross-country assessment of the facilitators and inhibitors

In this study, we developed a conceptual model for studying the adoption of electronic business (e-business or EB) at the firm level, incorporating six adoption facilitators and inhibitors, based on the technology–organization–environment theoretical framework. Survey data from 3100 businesses and 7500 consumers in eight European countries were used to test the proposed adoption model. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis to assess the reliability and validity of constructs. To examine whether adoption patterns differ across different e-business environments, we divided the full sample into high EB-intensity and low EB-intensity countries. After controlling for variations of industry and country effects, the fitted logit models demonstrated four findings: (1) Technology competence, firm scope and size, consumer readiness, and competitive pressure are significant adoption drivers, while lack of trading partner readiness is a significant adoption inhibitor. (2) As EB-intensity increases, two environmental factors – consumer readiness and lack of trading partner readiness – become less important, while competitive pressure remains significant. (3) In high EB-intensity countries, e-business is no longer a phenomenon dominated by large firms; as more and more firms engage in e-business, network effect works to the advantage of small firms. (4) Firms are more cautious in adopting e-business in high EB-intensity countries – it seems to suggest that the more informed firms are less aggressive in adopting e-business, a somehow surprising result. Explanations and implications are offered.     

Making E-business pay: eight key drivers for operational success

How does a company achieve high levels of operational performance in e-business? It invests in e-business drivers, key factors to maximize e-business value, related to technology, business processes, and readiness of customers and suppliers to achieve operational excellence. At the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, University of Texas at Austin, we conducted a large-scale study to assess e-business value in small, medium, and large companies across the US and Europe. This study, sponsored by Dell Computer, identifies the critical links between e-business drivers, financial indicators, and operational excellence measures. The extensive survey of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and wholesalers reveals that investing in e-business drivers pays off.     

The perceptions towards mobile services: an empirical analysis of the role of use facilitators

The adoption patterns for new technology such as mobile services are essential to understand for developing them further. Hence, it is important to study how willing people are to try new mobile services and do variables, which facilitate the use of the services have an effect on the consumers’ perceptions of the services and their adoption readiness. This study analyses how the familiarity of mobile devices, the time the services are initially used and users’ technology skills affect the initial mobile service usage experience and the likelihood of continuous usage. The results show that the duration of the use does not effect consumers’ perceptions about mobile services, but familiarity of the device and user skills have an impact on the perceptions of the services.     

Building an E-Business from Enterprise Systems

Building their companies into successful e-businesses has become an important objective for today's enterprises. Conceptually, it embodies the enabling of the business with such capabilities as global networking, streamlining business processes, sharing information, agility in responding to the market, and intelligent decision making. But how can these concepts be implemented in actual enterprises? Why do these desirable attributes of business systems suddenly become the definition of competency of companies large and small? This paper describes the framework for building an e-business from the enterprise information systems' perspective. Increasingly enterprise systems have extended beyond the traditional business functions and include such new features as supply-chain management, customer relationship management and electronic commerce. The shifting focus is driven by the adoption of the Web as a new channel for product distribution, marketing, and interacting with customers. The integration of the traditional as well as the Web-oriented functions is the cornerstone for a successful e-business. This paper presents a framework for e-businesses that on one hand build on the enterprise systems but on the other hand encompasses the new e-business dimensions.     

Service-Grids in der Industrie – On-Demand-Bereitstellung und Nutzung von Grid-basierten Services in Unternehmen

Over the last few years Grid computing has attracted considerable attention from the industry, because it offers opportunities for new on-demand business services for enterprises. In this article, we depict the current trend of enterprises to source Grid services offered by third-party utility providers on a use-on-demand, pay-per-use basis, thus leading to faster IT response to changing business needs. We outline the emerging expansion of Grid computing in industry and discuss the significant challenges still needing to be solved to further promote the adoption of Grid technology in the business domain.     

Core capabilities for practitioners in achieving e-business innovation

The rapid advance of information technology and its penetration into the core elements of the business model and organizational structures is enabling profound and significant organizational changes. In such a dynamic environment, firms must be able to continually evolve their capabilities to facilitate electronic business (e-business) innovation. Yet, current research pays little attention to the core capabilities that contribute to e-business innovation in general. This research seeks to identify the core capabilities that are necessary for achieving e-business innovation. We propose a tri-core model of e-business innovation adopted from Swanson (1994), which knits together three cores: business technology, the business model and the value network. We use this model initially to specify the functional areas of the capabilities. Based on data collected through an intensive literature review and an exploratory Delphi study, thirteen essential capabilities were considered as the keys to e-business innovation exploitation and exploration. Firms can facilitate their e-business solutions over time through the successful development of these capabilities. These findings provide great insights for practitioners and scholars alike to better understand the core capabilities for achieving e-business innovation. It can also help practitioners form a template of the requisite in-house management for identifying knowledge gaps and developing action plans.     

Environmental and organizational drivers influencing the adoption of VoIP

Previous research recognized the importance of studying the organizational adoption of a new communication technology because of its potential benefits on the organizational and individual outcome. However, extant studies took into account just a single theoretical perspective lacking a more comprehensive overview of the factors, which may influence the intention to adopt a new communication technology. Since the growing interest of voice over IP (VoIP) we developed our theoretical framework and tested our hypotheses considering this emerging communication technology. Thus, the present research considers simultaneously the institutional, management fashion, and efficient-choice perspectives for understanding the drivers of VoIP adoption process. A theoretical model is developed and tested through structural equation modelling on 620 Italian firms. We hypothesize that both external and internal factors affect the intention to adopt VoIP. Results underscore both the importance of coercive and fashion setters’ pressure (i.e. external factors), and the pivotal role of perceived internal benefits (i.e. internal factors) in shaping intention to adopt.

Impacts of employee participation and trust on e-business readiness, benefits, and satisfaction

An increasing number of firms have invested large sums in implementing electronic business (e-business). Nowadays, while the e-businesses are fostering rapid industrial growth, employees are the one who factually engage with information exchange, communication and support e-business processes. However, prior literature has paid scant attention in determining e-business value and its drivers from employee perspective. Thus, the present study attempts to investigate how user participation and trust drives e-business value in terms of e-business readiness, e-business benefits, and e-business satisfaction. For this sake, data collected from 143 employees at Taiwanese IT related firms and analyzed with partial least square (PLS) structural equation approach reveal that trust and user participation were significant precursors of employee e-business satisfaction. The results strongly support the contention that trust directly affects e-business satisfaction, and indirectly affects it through e-business readiness and e-business benefits. The research model and findings will help managers implement e-business successfully and offer valuable references for researchers interested in developing related theories.     

Integrating market,technology, and policy opportunities in e-business strategy

This article is a call to arms for electronic business managers and researchers to increase their attention to the emerging “policy” frontiers and employ theories and methods integrating policy with market and technology issues. The e-business environment is growing more complex—not just economically, but socially, politically, and legally—and firms must manage this complexity with strategies that match the amount and variety of complexity in their environment. In many e-business firms, there is a notable disdain toward emerging policy developments or even a mind set that e-business is beyond emerging social conventions, politics and the law (or at least beyond the reach of regulators). In the emerging global policy landscape, few firms can afford this hands-off attitude toward policy and maintain their chance of survival. E-business firms must integrate their policy strategies with their technology and market strategies. We outline five broad questions for researchers to help e-business firms address the interdependent challenges of market, technology and policy environments.     

The role of dynamic capabilities in e-business transformation

The domain of e-business is characterised by rapid change and in such markets managers can no longer rely on the resources that they have assembled to provide their extant competitive position. Instead they must be able to combine resources in new ways, gain additional resources and dispose of superfluous resources, and to do this repeatedly and rapidly if they are to compete successfully. The term ‘dynamic capabilities’ is emerging in the strategic management literature for these skills. This study seeks to identify the dynamic capabilities that are necessary for e-business transformation and to identify practices in developing these capabilities that are both effective and common across companies, and might therefore be considered as ‘best practice’. Eight distinct dynamic capabilities are identified, each appearing to address either innovative or integrative aspects of e-business transformation. Consistent with previous studies of dynamic markets it was found that ‘best practice’ involved simple, experiential and iterative approaches to these necessary capabilities.     

Proposing a context-aware enterprise mashup readiness assessment framework

Web mashups have received a lot of attention recently as more enterprises are engaged in enterprise 2.0 initiatives. So far, there is insufficient research on the adoption and diffusion of Web mashups in an enterprise context. In this paper, we discussed the benefits and issues associated with enterprise mashups. We proposed a context-aware enterprise mashup readiness assessment framework to help enterprise managers and decision makers determine their needs and readiness for enterprise mashups. A case study was conducted to verify the usefulness of the proposed framework. The results show that our work can be used to guide enterprises with their decision making for the adoption of enterprise mashups and thus contribute to the development of a rigorous strategy for enterprise mashup adoption, development and diffusion.     

Organizational adoption of open source software

Organizations and individuals can use open source software (OSS) for free, they can study its internal workings, and they can even fix it or modify it to make it suit their particular needs. These attributes make OSS an enticing technological choice for a company. Unfortunately, because most enterprises view technology as a proprietary differentiating element of their operation, little is known about the extent of OSS adoption in industry and the key drivers behind adoption decisions. In this article we examine factors and behaviors associated with the adoption of OSS and provide empirical findings through data gathered from the US Fortune-1000 companies. The data come from each company's web browsing and serving activities, gathered by sifting through more than 278 million web server log records and analyzing the results of thousands of network probes. We show that the adoption of OSS in large US companies is significant and is increasing over time through a low-churn transition, advancing from applications to platforms. Its adoption is a pragmatic decision influenced by network effects. It is likelier in larger organizations and those with many less productive employees, and is associated with IT and knowledge-intensive work and operating efficiencies.     

Potential of critical e-applications for engaging SMEs in e-business: a provider perspective

Against a background of the low engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in e-business, this paper investigates the emergence of, and potential for, critical e-applications defined as ‘an e-business application, promoted by a trusted third party, which engages a significant number of SMEs by addressing an important shared business concern within an aggregation.’ By a review of secondary data and empirical investigation with service providers and other intermediaries, the research shows that such applications can facilitate the engagement of SME aggregations. There are three key findings, namely: the emergence of aggregation-specific e-business applications; the emergence of collaboratively based ‘one to many’ business models; and the importance of trusted third parties in the adoption of higher-level complexity e-business applications by SMEs. Significantly, this work takes a deliberately provider perspective and complements the already considerable literature on SME IT adoption from a user and network perspective. In terms of future research, the importance of a better conceptual understanding of the impact of complexity on the adoption of information technologies by SMEs is highlighted.     

Swiping paper: the second hand, mundane artifacts, gesture and collaboration

It is widely recognised that paper remains a pervasive resource for collaboration and yet there has been uncertain progress in developing technologies that aim to enhance paper documents with computational capabilities. In this article, we discuss the design of a technology that interweaves developments in hardware and materials, electronics and software, and seeks to create new affinities between digital content and paper. The design of the technology drew from findings from naturalistic studies of the uses of paper, particularly when considering how ‘users’ might ‘interact’ with the augmented technology. We briefly review these studies and discuss the results of an evaluation of the emerging technology. Analysis of the fine details of the conduct of participants in these assessments suggest how, even when we design simple forms of interaction with a device, these can be shaped and transformed by the participation and collaboration of others.     

Adoption of software as a service in Indonesia: Examining the influence of organizational factors

In this study, we investigated the organizational factors that influenced Indonesian companies in their decision to adopt software as a service (SaaS). Based on a multiple-case study of 18 Indonesian companies, we identified three patterns: Top management support is an enabler for SaaS adoption; small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more likely to adopt SaaS than large companies; and organizational readiness is not an enabler for SaaS adoption. The last two patterns contradict existing information technology (IT) innovation adoption research. We explain this by examining the nature of SaaS as an IT innovation and the characteristics of Indonesia as a developing country.     

eXFlow: a Web Services-compliant system for supporting B2B process integration

In the B2Bi (Business to Business Integration) scenario, Business Process Management is essential for enterprises wanting to integrate internal existing processes with trading partners’ process in a manageable manner. ebXML, RosettaNet, and Web Services are among the emerging standards that will play a key role in the automation of B2Bi from the business and technology perspectives. However, the question arises of how these techniques can be engineered together to realize the B2Bi. A Web Services-compliant eXFlow solution aims to provide such an environment. This work describes this solution in detail and further examines the concepts behind this solution by using a typical B2Bi application scenario in Logistics.     

A Knowledge-Based Framework for Measuring Organizational Readiness for the Adoption of B2B Integration Systems

Organizational readiness has long been identified as a critical success factor for the adoption of inter-organizational systems. This article presents a knowledge-based methodology for constructing readiness assessment instruments for B2B integration solutions and examines its validation by conducting structural equation modeling analysis with input data from wholesale trading firms in Greece. Strong emphasis is given to the usability and appropriateness of the produced indicators and the relevant gap in literature is addressed. The B2Bi success factors that are presented and the final set of their underlying indicators can provide a starting point for conducting organizational readiness evaluations for the successful adoption of multi-enterprise integration solutions. Our methodology and findings can assist enterprises and public bodies to utilize, share, and enrich a knowledge base about B2Bi organizational readiness, throughout their evolution as part of the Knowledge Society.     

Modeling users’ acceptance of mobile services

The success of mobile services adoption hinges on their ability to cover user needs and attract consumer interest. The extant literature focuses on understanding the factors that might affect consumers’ actual adoption of such services through their effect on behavioral intention; these studies are mostly based on behavioral intention theories, such as Technology Acceptance Model, Diffusion of Innovation and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. In this work, new theoretical constructs are combined with existing evidence in order to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as it was initially established by Davis and later further enriched by other researchers. The proposed model includes behavioral intention, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, innovativeness, relationship drivers, and functionality. Within this approach, relationship drivers introduce a marketing perspective to the original models of technology adoption by building emotional connections between the users and the mobile services. The hypothesized model is empirically tested using data collected from a survey on m-commerce consumers. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to evaluate the causal model and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model. It is briefly concluded that behavioral intention is directly affected by perceived usefulness, innovativeness and relationship drivers; the findings provide interesting insights and useful hints to practitioners and researchers.     

Internet Retailing Adoption by Small-to-Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs): A Multiple-Case Study

Despite the proliferation of Internet retailing and the relative novelty and complexity of this phenomenon, very little theory-guided qualitative research has been conducted to improve our understanding of the adoption of Internet retailing project by SMEs. This study presents a theoretical framework for analyzing the adoption of Internet retailing for SMEs. Organizational readiness (IT sophistication, financial resources, and customer readiness), perceived benefits of Internet retailing, and environmental factors are proposed to be the key drivers of adoption of Internet retailing. This research was designed using a qualitative approach through in-depth case studies selected from firms in Hong Kong where there is a proliferation of SMEs. The contextual meaning and practical manifestation of the key adoption factors were captured through the case studies. Our findings provide preliminary support for the proposed research framework, and contribute towards a better conceptual and practical understanding of the main factors driving SMEs to adopt Internet retailing. Contrary to popular belief, customer readiness for Internet shopping was not found to be a significant factor influencing SMEs' decision to adopt Internet retailing.     

System on chip design service e-business value maximization through a novel MCDM framework

As the IC (integrated circuit) industry migrates to the System-on-Chip (SOC) era, the SOC design service industry is emerging. Meanwhile, in the past decade, the emergence of Internet has changed the high technology marketing approaches while e-commerce has already become one of the most efficient marketing channels. Thus, most leading SOC design service firms tried to leverage novel e-commerce business models to provide better services including online silicon intellectual property (SIP) sourcing, transactions, integration, etc. to assist customers in enhancing their innovation competences to shorten their time to market and thus, time to money. However, defining appropriate e-business models for commercializing new SIPs or SOC design services is not easy for both aspects of technology as well as business development. On one hand, from the aspect of technology, the technical site R&D or production managers are familiar with SOC technologies while do not really understand the needs of customers’ over the Internet. On the other hand, from the aspect of business development, the sales or marketing managers may be familiar with online customers’ needs, wants as well as demands while are unfamiliar to SOC technology developments. To overcome the above mentioned problems, an appropriate e-business model definition framework can overcome this cognitive gap and maximize the value-added of online SOC design services. In this paper, a novel analytic framework based on the concept of design service customers’ competence set expansions by leveraging high technology service firms’ capabilities and resources as well as novel multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques, will be proposed. The framework being proposed can be leveraged by the design service firms to define an appropriate e-business model for possible SIP or design service businesses. Based on the proposed MCDM framework, an empirical study of an SIP commercialization e-business model definition inside an SIP Mall, an SIP e-commerce mechanism being operated by a SOC design service firm, will be provided for verifying the effectiveness of this novel analytic framework. The feasibility of the proposed framework in the real world can be verified by the empirical study. In the future, the novel MCDM framework can be applied to novel e-business model definitions in the SOC design service or other high technology industries.