Evolutionary patterns in e-business strategy

摘要

Purpose - In 2003 the authors investigated the level of adoption of e-business by manufacturingrnfirms in Europe. Four company strategies were identified based on different extents of adoption ofrninternet-based tools for interaction with customers and/or suppliers. The purpose of this paper is tornreplicate, those analyses using the new release of the International Manufacturing Strategy Surveyrn(IMSS) IV. These new results are compared with previous ones in order to determine whether modelingrnpreviously described in the literature remains valid.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Data collected in Europe through IMSS III and IV are used. Inrnparticular, companies are clustered according to e-business practices adopted in supply chainrnmanagement (SCM) and the degree of adoption of e-business between the two editions of the researchrnis compared. A longitudinal analysis is also conducted using data from companies participating inrnboth editions of the survey.rnFindings - It is shown that the fundamental aspects of the modeling approach earlier proposed in thernliterature remain valid, with a higher average level of adoption of e-business tools in the more recentrnedition of the study. However, the four-cluster model is shown to be no longer valid. In the more recentrndataset, three clusters emerge. They are characterized by different levels of adoption of e-business,rnbalanced between e-commerce and e-procurement. The longitudinal analysis shows that the firmsrnparticipating in both editions of the research have changed their strategy, coherently to what thernoverall sample does.rnResearch limitations/implications - This paper is focused on the assembly industry and onlyrnpart of the sample is strictly longitudinal. Further research is needed to relate e-business strategy withrnperformance and to distinguish among the various tools available.rnPractical implications - This paper also shows that the adoption of e-business is increasing amongrnsmall and medium firms, even if the practices adopted by any individual company remain limited.rnResults show that a cautious adoption is preferable to more radical implementation, since some firmsrnhave actually reduced their initial efforts to adopt e-business.rnOriginality/value - The literature currently lacks extensive, longitudinal studies on e-businessrnstrategies in SCM. The paper shows how the concept has rapidly evolved recently, and it modifiesrnmodels that are proposed only a few years ago in the face of new data.