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 /

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 /

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

Enablers and barriers of internationalization in e-commerce : Finnish retail SMEs in focus

In the past years, e-commerce has been growing quickly at the same time when economic growth in developed economies has been modest. Moreover, e-commerce is increasingly inter- national. This study focuses on describing and analyzing the process of internationalization in e-commerce with Finnish retail SMEs in focus. The main research question is to find out why Finnish e-commerce companies struggle in the competition with their Swedish counterparts? The sub-objectives of the study are to find out what are the firm-specific determinants that influence the internationalization of a certain e-commerce firm, and on the other hand, what are the enablers and barriers of internationalization for Finnish e-commerce firms. The study begins with building a preliminary theoretical framework based on previous literature on the topic, including an overview on e-commerce companies, internationalization theory and presenting of previous studies on enablers and barriers of internationalization. The empirical research was conducted by six semi-structured expert interviews based on the theo- retical framework. The interviewees were chosen by their expertise and experiences in e-com- merce and internationalization. However, as the research was explorative by nature, the re- searcher emphasized on finding surprising new themes emerging from the data. The findings of the study support the existing theory to a large extent but also offers new interesting information particularly on the enablers and barriers of internationalization of Finn- ish e-commerce firms. The study underlines the importance of social media platforms and mar- keting tools that create an efficient channel for global brand marketing and internationalization in e-commerce. On the other hand, the study suggests that there are basically no risk-investors nor banks keen on investing in growing e-commerce businesses in Finland. On the contrary in Sweden, various successful e-commerce business cases have lured investors and created buzz around the industry. To conclude, the empirical findings offer interesting insight to the main research question of the study and well as to the research field of internationalization in e-commerce. However, as only a half a dozen interviews were conducted, the findings remain superficial and larger empirical research is required in order to make more generalizable conclusions.Verkkokauppa on kasvanut viime vuosina nopeasti samaan aikaan, kun kehittyneiden talouksien talouskasvu on ollut vaatimatonta. Lisäksi verkkokauppa on yhä kansainväli-sempää. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy kuvaamaan ja analysoimaan verkkokaupan kansainvä-listymisprosessia suomalaisen kaupan alan pk-yrityksen näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen ta-voitteena on selvittää miksi suomalaiset verkkokauppayritykset eivät pärjää kilpailuissa ruotsalaisten yritysten kanssa? Tutkimuksen alatavoitteet pureutuvat yrityskohtaisiin teki-jöihin, jotka vaikuttavat verkkokauppayrityksen kansainvälistymiseen, ja toisaalta kysy-mykseen mitkä ovat suomalaisten verkkokauppayritysten kansainvälistymisen mahdollis-tavat ja estävät tekijät. Tutkimus alkaa aikaisempaan kirjallisuuteen perustuvan teoreettisen kehyksen raken-tamisella, joka sisältää yleiskatsauksen verkkokauppayrityksistä, kansainvälistymisteorias-ta ja kansainvälistymisen mahdollistavista ja estävistä tekijöistä. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa suoritettiin kuudella puolistrukturoidulla asiantuntijahaastattelulla, jotka perustuivat tutkimuksen teoreettiselle viitekehykselle. Haastateltavat valittiin verkkokaupassa kan-sainvälistymisen kokemuksien perusteella ja asiantuntemuksen perusteella. Tutkimus oli luonteeltaan tutkiva ja tutkija halusi löytää uutta ja yllättävää tietoa käsiteltävästä ilmiöstä. Tutkimuksen löydökset tukevat suurelta osin olemassa olevaa teoriaa, mutta ne tuot-tivat myös uutta mielenkiintoista tietoa etenkin suomalaisten verkkokauppayritysten kan-sainvälistymisen mahdollistavista ja estävistä tekijöistä. Löydökset korostavat sosiaalisen median alustojen ja markkinointityökalujen merkitystä, luoden tehokkaan kanavan glo-baaliin brändimarkkinointiin ja kansainvälistymiseen verkkokaupassa. Toisaalta tutki-muksen mukaan Suomessa ei käytännössä ole riskisijoittajia eikä pankkeja, jotka haluai-sivat investoida kasvaviin verkkokaupan alan yrityksiin, kun taas Ruotsissa useat menes-tyneet verkkokaupat ovat houkuttaneet sijoittajia ja luoneet kiinnostusta koko toimialan ympärille. Yhteenvetona voidaan todeta, että empiiriset havainnot tarjoavat mielenkiintoisia vastauksia tutkimuksen pääkysymykseen sekä laajemmin verkkokaupan kansainvälisty-mistutkimukseen. Täytyy kuitenkin muistaa, että tutkimus toteutettiin vain kuuden asian-tuntijahaastattelun avulla, joten havainnot säilyvät pintapuolisena ja tarvitaan laajempaa empiiristä tutkimusta yleisemmin arvioitavissa olevien päätelmien tekemiseksi

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 /

E-commerce adoption by European firms: a cross-country multilevel analysis

E-commerce has been recognized as a new form of commerce and a fresh way to identify, target, and retain customers. However, firms are often uncertain about investing in the online channel as there is no guarantee this will result in consumers engaging in online transactions. The studies on e-commerce adoption usually distinguish the following three dimensions: environmental, technological, and organizational (Rodríguez-Ardura & Meseguer-Artola, 2010; Zhu, Kraemer, & Xu, 2003). There are few purely virtual firms, and the traditional channel and multichannels continue to be the predominant types of retail channels used by firms (Zhu, Kraemer, & Xu, 2006; Li, Troutt, Brandyberry, & Wang, 2011). This is due to the many obstacles faced by firms adopting e-commerce; more specifically, they must overcome important technical, cognitive, socio-political, economic, legal, managerial, financial, and cultural challenges (Zhu, Kraemer, & Xu, 2003; Molla & Licker, 2005; Kshetri, 2007). Given the heterogeneity of contexts, the factors constraining the adoption of ecommerce are not the same across firms and countries (digital divide). In light of this, our focus will be on firms that have not yet taken the decision to adopt e-commerce due to a set of restraints, and on analyzing the differences within- and between-countries. The research question to be answered is: What are the inhibitors of e-commerce adoption in each EU country? An analysis is made of the overall attitudes towards e-commerce adoption in European firms, linking specific deterrents of e-commerce adoption (e.g., higher delivery costs or the nature of business) and the following retailer characteristics: size, type of product, retail channels, and respondent’s position in the firm and engagement in distance selling. To explore the overall attitude towards e-commerce adoption, we propose a conceptual model that combines a two-level structure: the individual level, which models the attitudes towards barriers that prevent adoption of the online channel within each country; and the country level that highlights the similarities (and differences) between EU countries. The statistical model combines factorial and regression components. This model was estimated by the maximum likelihood method using the MPlus 6.12. CFI is 0.989, TLI is 0.984, and RMSEA is 0.034; therefore, model fit is excellent (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Results show that aspects such as firm size and the job position of respondents do not influence the attitudes toward e-commerce adoption. Three covariates point to theiv aversion to e-commerce: telesales/call center retailing, direct retail channels, and selling non-food products.A adoção do comércio eletrónico tem vindo a ser reconhecida como uma nova forma de retalho, bem como uma forma inovadora de identificar, adquirir e reter clientes. As empresas têm tendência a enfrentar a incerteza no momento de decidir se irão ou não investir num canal na Internet, dado que são necessários recursos internos e a oferta de um serviço que faça os clientes quererem efetuar novas compras pela Internet. Os estudos nesta área focam-se principalmente em três dimensões: organizacional, tecnológica e contextual (Rodríguez-Ardura & Meseguer-Artola, 2010; Zhu, Kraemer, & Xu, 2003). São poucas as firmas que usam apenas canais virtuais para vender produtos/serviços/informações, sendo o retalho tradicional e o multicanal os canais mais utilizados pelos retalhistas (Zhu, Kraemer, & Xu, 2006; Li, Troutt, Brandyberry, & Wang, 2011). Em consequência, a adoção de comércio eletrónico enfrenta vários obstáculos, nomeadamente técnicos, cognitivos, sociopolíticos, económicos, legais, financiais, culturais e organizacionais (Zhu, Kraemer, & Xu, 2003; Molla & Licker, 2005; Kshetri, 2007). Tendo em consideração a heterogeneidade contextual, torna-se evidente que os fatores que dificultam a adoção do comércio eletrónico não são os mesmos em diferentes empresas ou países, o que origina um fosso digital a nível global. Assim sendo, o nosso foco ao longo desta dissertação será em empresas que ainda não adotaram o comércio eletrónico, considerando os diferentes inibidores no momento da tomada de decisão pelos gestores, bem como as diferenças que existem em cada países e entre países da União Europeia. A questão principal a ser respondida será: Quais os fatores que inibem a adoção do comércio eletrónico em cada país europeu? Considerando esta questão basilar, irão ser analisadas as atitudes das empresas europeias perante a adoção de comércio eletrónico, cruzando impedimentos específicos à adoção de e-comércio (como por exemplo, os elevados custos associados à entrega ou a natureza do negócio) com características específicas dos retalhistas (covariáveis): dimensão da empresa, tipo de produto transacionado, os canais de venda, a posição dos entrevistados na empresa, bem como se estão já ou não a exportar produtos ou serviços. Para explorar estas atitudes das empresas europeias perante a adoção de comércio eletrónico, foi proposto um modelo conceptual que combina uma estrutura em dois níveis: a nível individual, o modelo analisa as atitudes em cada país relacionada com as barreiras associadas à adoção do comércio eletrónico; e ao nível do país, onde são identificadas as diferenças e as semelhanças entre os paísesii europeus. O modelo estatístico combina uma componente fatorial e uma componente de regressão. Para além disso, foi estimado usando o método de máxima verosimilhança, recorrendo ao software MPlus 6.12. Como o CFI é 0,989, o TLI é 0,984 e o RMSEA é 0,034, podemos concluir que o ajuste do modelo é excelente (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Os resultados revelam que aspetos como a dimensão da empresa e a posição dos entrevistados não influenciam as atitudes em relação à adoção do comércio eletrónico. Contudo, são três as covariáveis identificadas como tendo aversão à adoção do ecomércio: as empresas que usam as televendas, as empresas que usam o call center como canal de vendas e os retalhistas que optam pelas vendas diretas (comércio tradicional), bem como as que vendem produtos não alimentares

Strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and mechanisms their implementation in the global dimension

The authors of the book have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to effectively use modern approaches to developing and implementation strategies of sustainable socio-economic development in order to increase efficiency and competitiveness of economic entities. Basic research focuses on economic diagnostics of socio-economic potential and financial results of economic entities, transition period in the economy of individual countries and ensuring their competitiveness, assessment of educational processes and knowledge management. The research results have been implemented in the different models and strategies of supply and logistics management, development of non-profit organizations, competitiveness of tourism and transport, financing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border cooperation. The results of the study can be used in decision-making at the level the economic entities in different areas of activity and organizational-legal forms of ownership, ministries and departments that promote of development the economic entities on the basis of models and strategies for sustainable socio-economic development. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in modern concepts and mechanisms for management of sustainable socio-economic development of economic entities in the condition of global economic transformations and challenges