Encouraging small firm up-take of SCM using education: a future research agenda

The success of supply chain management (SCM) practices often depends on small firms in the supply chain adopting these practices, yet they are often reluctant to do so. The existing literature mostly explores SCM adoption barriers rather than approaches to encourage adoption. This paper argues that an educational perspective has promise, and proposes a research agenda which should guide future studies by all researchers studying small firm SCM up-take. The agenda encompasses the diversity of small firms, the major educational players, appropriate types of education approaches and the theoretical framework to underpin this research. The paper then gives an example of how this research agenda can be applied to a specific research project which will explore the impact of the Supply Chain Knowledge Centre (SCKC), a state of the art SCM education facility developed by GS1 Australia, on small firm SCM up-take.<br /

Why should small firms adopt ebusiness? A framework for understanding the SME ebusiness context

eBusiness research typically questions why small firms do not adopt these powerful technologies and suggests explanatory factors for these perceived shortcomings. This paper argues against the technological expansionist view by questioning why small firms should adopt eBusiness. Specifically, it proposes a new conceptualisation showing that each small firm has different circumstances and associated business goals, and that researchers and practitioners must convince each small firm why eBusiness should be used for its goals in preference to non-technology solutions. The paper also provides some preliminary insights, based on this view, into future theoretical and empirical directions to guide researchers who conduct small firm eBusiness adoption studies.<br /

A preliminary meta-analysis of SME ebusiness journal publications: current trends and future research opportunities moving beyond adoption factor studies

Previous meta-analyses of SME-eBusiness journal research focuses on analysing adoption factors, pre-2000 articles and a small number of journals. This paper departs from this research by analysing 100 articles published between 2003 and 2006 in 41 journals on the basis of the research approaches employed, countries and eBusiness technologies studied, and research objectives focused upon. The paper presents preliminary insights into current major research trends based on this analysis, such as the predominant focus on adoption factor by many studies. It also identifies future research opportunities, and proposes a research agenda which aims to progress SME-eBusiness research beyond adoption factor studies by outlining research objectives to help SMEs overcome barriers and exploit drivers.<br /

Histórica revisión sistemática sobre el comercio electrónico en ISI – Web of Knowledge, 1997-2006

The objective of the study is to carry out a historical systematic review on electronic commerce in ISI – Web of Knowledge, 1997-2006. It focused on a qualitative research based on documentary analysis through the bibliographic review of the productions related to the critical factors of success. of electronic commerce. 67 articles classified into three types of studies were analyzed: field (50), cases (9) and conceptual (8). The attributes analyzed were: field (author, year of publication, article title, country, sector and type, study problem and objectives, theoretical basis, sample size, statistical methods, dependent and independent variables, data collection techniques, data and conclusions), of cases (author, year of publication, title of the article, country, sector and type, number of cases, problem and objectives of the study, theoretical basis, pilot cases, data collection technique and conclusions) and the conceptual (author, year of publication and title of article and contributions). The most relevant results were: empirical or field studies (75%) surpass the other types of studies (cases and conceptual), with 13% and 12% respectively, in terms of numbers. It is concluded that there is a small number of productions in Latin America on e-commerce between 1997-2006.El objetivo del estudio es realizar una histórica revisión sistemática sobre el comercio electrónico en ISI – Web of Knowledge, 1997- 2006. Se enfocó en una investigación cualitativa basado en el análisis documental mediante la revisión bibliográfica de las producciones relacionadas con los factores críticos de éxito del comercio electrónico. Se analizó 67 artículos clasificados en tres tipos de estudios: campo (50), casos (9) y conceptual (8). Los atributos analizados fueron: de campo (autor, año de publicación, título del artículo, país, sector y tipo, problema y objetivos del estudio, base teórica, tamaño de la muestra, métodos estadísticos, variables dependiente e independientes, técnicas de recolección de datos y conclusiones), de casos (autor, año de publicación, título del artículo, país, sector y tipo, números de casos, problema&nbsp; y objetivos del estudio, base teórica, caso pilotos, técnica de recolección de datos y conclusiones) y los conceptuales (autor, año de publicación y título de artículo y aportes). Los resultados más relevantes fueron: los estudios empíricos o de campo (75%) sobrepasan en términos de cantidades a los demás tipos de estudios (casos y conceptuales), con 13% y 12% respectivamente. Se concluye que existe una escaza cantidad de producciones en Latinoamérica sobre el e-commerce entre 1997-2006

New directions for research on SME-eBusiness :insights from an analysis of journal articles from 2003-2006

Previous research which consolidates the growing body of academic literature on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and electronic business (eBusiness) has taken the form of meta-analyses which focus on analysing adoption factors, pre-2000 articles and a small number of journals. This paper makes a valuable contribution to the analysis of SME-eBusiness research by addressing the limitations of past literature analyses because it presents an extensive literature review of 120 SME-eBusiness journal articles published between 2003 and 2006 in 53 journals. This paper is unique, when compared to meta-analyses of adoption factors, because it analyses the SME-eBusiness literature broadly on the basis of the data collection approaches used, countries and eBusiness technologies studied, and the primary research objective of each article. This approach to the analysis revealed a number of limitations in the existing research such as the tendency: to treat SMEs and eBusiness applications homogeneously rather than as highly diverse, complex entities; to repeat adoption factor studies which have now reached saturation point; and to focus on SMEs themselves without considering the complexity of relationships which many SMEs have with family, friends, other businesses and eBusiness solution providers. These limitations highlight the need for new research directions which move beyond identifying and evaluating adoption factors. The paper concludes by outlining a number of broad research directions which might help overcome the limitations with the existing body of SME-eBusiness research. <br /

Fattori influenti sul ricorso ad Internet nei processi gestionali delle micro-imprese

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Business process management for SMEs: an exploratory study of implementation factors for the Australian wine industry

Gartner EXPPremier (2005) identified Business Process Management (BPM) as the number one business priority and building Business Process Capability as a major challenge for senior executives within the comingyears. The focus of BPM in practice and related research has been its application in large organisations. The general value proposition of BPM, however, is also of significance for small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). SMEs within the wine industry have only recently begun to apply BPM principles to their business. The main motivating factors for this business improvement effort is a need to cope with consolidation trends and the global grape glut, which are forcing wine businesses to increase operational efficiency. The wine industry has been selected as a case study for this research not only due to its local significance, its growth driven byglobalisation and its contribution to the economy, but also the relative immaturity in terms of establishing concepts of a process-oriented organisation. This study aims to explore and structure the major issues of BPM adoption and implementation as the first such research initiative for SMEs in the wine industry. The research was conducted in Western Australia and involved qualitative data collection including interviews and contentanalysis of existing documentation. The study shows that the lack of financial resources, time, and knowledge of BPM are the major factors inhibiting BPM implementation for SMEs in the Australian wine industry

New directions for research on SME-eBusiness: insights from an analysis of journal articles from 2003 to 2006

Previous research which consolidates the growing body of academic literature on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and electronic business (eBusiness) has taken the form of meta-analyses which focus on analysing adoption factors, pre-2000 articles and a small number of journals. This paper makes a valuable contribution to the analysis of SME-eBusiness research by addressing the limitations of past literature analyses because it presents an extensive literature review of 120 SME-eBusiness journal articles published between 2003 and 2006 in 53 journals. This paper is unique, when compared to meta-analyses of adoption factors, because it analyses the SME-eBusiness literature broadly on the basis of the data collection approaches used, countries and eBusiness technologies studied, and the primary research objective of each article. This approach to the analysis revealed a number of limitations in the existing research such as the tendency: to treat SMEs and eBusiness applications homogeneously rather than as highly diverse, complex entities; to repeat adoption factor studies which have now reached saturation point; and to focus on SMEs themselves without considering the complexity of relationships which many SMEs have with family, friends, other businesses and eBusiness solution providers. These limitations highlight the need for new research directions which move beyond identifying and evaluating adoption factors. The paper concludes by outlining a number of broad research directions which might help overcome the limitations with the existing body of SME-eBusiness research

Antecedents and Impacts of E-Business Aligment Amongst Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

E-business has great potentials for firms to extend their business efficiency. Nevertheless, due to various problems and constraints, the e-business deployment within SMEs sector has been reported as not effective. To ensure effective e-business deployment, necessary measures are needed to assess how firms align diverse ebusiness capabilities in support of their business operation. This study therefore aims to investigate the extent firms align diverse e-business capabilities across business processes (e-business alignment). Using a strategic fit perspective, this study has observed two major propositions. First, firms‟ ability to align e-business to support the most crucial business processes has potentially led to better realisation of ebusiness values. Secondly, certain managerial and environmental conditions have explained the differing characteristics of e-business alignment amongst firms. This study employs quantitative research approach using survey method to collect and collate evidences from 140 owner/managers of SMEs. Preliminary analysis has indicated e-business alignment/misalignment patterns across business functions. The cluster analysis further reveals three distinct profiles with different characteristics of e-business alignment. These profiles are labelled as 'highly fit', 'moderately fit' and 'low fit' based on their e-business fit characteristics. This result confirms the first proposition where highly aligned firms will report greater and wider e-business impacts. The second proposition reveals that environmental uncertainty, IT sophistication, owner/manager knowledge on advanced IT/IS, e-business deployment status, and support network are significant predictors to different e-business alignment characteristics among firms. This study suggests that firms relatively have different priority over e-business solutions to support their business. These findings have demonstrated why some firms do not progress to a higher e-business ladder. It further justifies unequal deployment of e-business solutions to support functions across firms