Facilitators and Inhibitors for Deploying Business-to-Business E-Commerce Applications: A Multi-Method, Cross-Cultural Study

Firms are increasingly using the Web to conduct inter-organizational business transactions. This type of effort, popularly known as ìbusiness-to-businessî (B2B) electronic commerce (e-commerce) has caught the attention of researchers and practitioners. Although there is a widespread adoption of B2B applications, there is very little empirical research that has attempted to investigate this phenomenon. There is no clear idea on how firms are managing the B2B initiatives and what problems they face in deploying B2B e-commerce systems. This paper describes an on-going research project that examines the facilitators and inhibitors for deploying B2B applications. The project employs both qualitative and quantitative approaches and is being conducted in the United States, Singapore, and Norway. The project is being conducted in two phases. In the first phase, an extensive literature review and iterative interviews with senior IT executives yielded a list of 46 facilitators/inhibitors. In the second phase, a survey instrument was developed based on the initial list. This survey form was pilot tested and sent to senior IT executives in the three countries. The preliminary analysis of data reveals nine categories of factors as affecting the deployment of B2B e-commerce applications in organizations. The current status of the project, preliminary findings from a partial data set, and the studyís potential contributions are discussed

Increasing online shop revenues with web scraping: a case study for the wine sector

Purpose – Wine has been produced for thousands of years and nowadays we have seen a spread in the wine culture. E-commerce sales of wine have increased considerably and online customer’s satisfaction is influenced by quality and price. This paper presents a case study of the company “QuieroVinos, S.L.”, an online wine shop founded in 2015 that sells Spanish wines in two main marketplaces. Design/methodology/approach – With the final target of increasing the company profits it has been designed and developed an application to track the prices of competitors for a set of products. This information will be used to set the product prices in order to offer the products both competitively and profitably in each Marketplace. This application must check, by tacking into account information such as the product cost or the minimum product margin, if it is possible to decrease the price in order to reach the top cheapest position and as a consequence, increase the sales. Findings – The application improved in a notorious way the company’s results in terms of sales and shipping costs. It must be said that without the use of the presented application, performing the price comparison process within each one of the marketplaces would have taken a long time. Moreover, as prices change very frequently, the obtained information has a very limited time value, and the competitors prices should be analyzed daily in order to take accurate decisions regarding the company’s price policy. Originality/value – Although the application has been designed for the wine sector and the two named marketplace, it could be exported to other sectors. For that, it should be implemented new modules to collect information regarding the competitor’s price of the products selling on each corresponding marketplaceThis work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under contract TIN2017- 84553-C2-2-R. Also, the authors are members of the research group 2017-SGR363, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya

Literature review of information technology adoption models at firm level

Today, information technology (IT) is universally regarded as an essential tool in enhancing the competitiveness of the economy of a country. There is consensus that IT has significant effects on the productivity of firms. These effects will only be realized if, and when, IT are widely spread and used. It is essential to understand the determinants of IT adoption. Consequently it is necessary to know the theoretical models. There are few reviews in the literature about the comparison of IT adoption models at the individual level, and to the best of our knowledge there are even fewer at the firm level. This review will fill this gap. In this study, we review theories for adoption models at the firm level used in information systems literature and discuss two prominent models: diffusion on innovation (DOI) theory, and the technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework. The DOI found that individual characteristics, internal characteristics of organizational structure, and external characteristics of the organization are important antecedents to organizational innovativeness. The TOE framework identifies three aspects of an enterprise's context that influence the process by which it adopts and implements a technological innovation: technological context, organizational context, and environmental context. We made a thorough analysis of the TOE framework, analysing the studies that used only this theory and the studies that combine the TOE framework with other theories such as: DOI, institutional theory, and the Iacovou, Benbasat, and Dexter model. The institutional theory helps us to understand the factors that influence the adoption of interorganizational systems (IOSs); it postulates that mimetic, coercive, and normative institutional pressures existing in an institutionalized environment may influence the organization’s predisposition toward an IT-based interorganizational system. The Iacovou, Benbasat, and Dexter model, analyses IOSs characteristics that influence firms to adopt IT innovations. It is based on three contexts: perceived benefits, organizational readiness, and external pressure. The analysis of these models takes into account the empirical literature, and the difference between independent and dependent variables. The paper also makes recommendations for future research. (17) (PDF) Literature Review of Information Technology Adoption Models at Firm Level. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258821009_Literature_Review_of_Information_Technology_Adoption_Models_at_Firm_Level [accessed Aug 26 2020].publishersversionpublishe

ICT for eco-sustainability: an assessment of the capability of the Australian ICT sector

Executive summary As eco-sustainability issues become increasingly important to most, if not all, Australian organisations, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry is expected to provide solutions that reduce material consumption (dematerialise), emissions (decarbonise), and energy use and waste production (demobilise) in both the ICT infrastructure and the business processes and practices of industries. The term \u27Green ICT\u27 represents this eco- sustainability enabling role of the ICT industry. The School of Business Information Technology and Logistics, RMIT University in collaboration with the Australian Information Industries Association (AIIA) surveyed all members and affiliates of the AIIA at the beginning of 2010 to understand Australian ICT firms\u27 capability to enhance the eco-sustainability of other industries. Based on data collected from 133 ICT firms, this report constitutes the first comprehensive study that exclusively focuses on the Australian ICT industry

ICT for Economic Development in Rwanda: Fostering E-Commerce Adoption in Tourism SMEs

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Rwandan tourism sector are slow in adopting information and communication technology (ICT) and especially e-commerce applications (Nibigira 2014). In the effort to pinpoint the drivers promising more extensive EC roll-out and thus economic and societal ICT-driven improvements in Rwanda, we firstly show some ongoing initiatives that of deploying ICT and e-commerce Rwanda. We then investigate more specifically the key determinants of EC adoption in the context of Rwanda. To that end, we adopt the Perceived E-Readiness Model (PERM) developed by Molla and Licker (2005) and apply it to ecommerce adoption in Rwandan tourism SMEs. From better understanding what accelerates or impedes ICT and e-commerce adoption in the Rwandan tourism sector, we hope to derive arguments for further fostering ICT roll-out in general and the e-commerce roll-out in particular in Rwanda – first throughout the Rwandan tourism sector and subsequently throughout other SME-based business sectors – and thus to contribute to the country\u27s economic and societal development along the lines of many Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) studies (Heeks 2006, Heeks and Molla 2007, Zelenika and Pearce 2013)

Critical Management Issues for Implementing RFID in Supply Chain Management

The benefits of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the supply chain are fairly compelling. It has the potential to revolutionise the efficiency, accuracy and security of the supply chain with significant impact on overall profitability. A number of companies are actively involved in testing and adopting this technology. It is estimated that the market for RFID products and services will increase significantly in the next few years. Despite this trend, there are major impediments to RFID adoption in supply chain. While RFID systems have been around for several decades, the technology for supply chain management is still emerging. We describe many of the challenges, setbacks and barriers facing RFID implementations in supply chains, discuss the critical issues for management and offer some suggestions. In the process, we take an in-depth look at cost, technology, standards, privacy and security and business process reengineering related issues surrounding RFID technology in supply chains

E-business and process change: two case studies (towards an assessment framework)

Purpose The purpose of this research paper is to explore the impacts of e-business technology adoption at process level in SMEs. Methodology/approach The paper reviews a range of literature and mainstream models relating to e-business impacts in SMEs and then focuses on two in-depth case studies. The cases draw their empirical material from the involvement of the author in e-business project management in these two companies.. Findings The two case studies show significant impacts of e-business technology at process level. They also illustrate that contrasting information systems strtaegies can be equally successful in embracing e-business process change. Originality/value The value of the case studies lies in their originality and the paper highlights the potential impacts and benefits of e-business at process level