Competing in the Digital Economy?: The Dynamics and Impacts of B2B E-commerce on the South African Manufacturing Sector

ICTs, B2B e-commerce, manufacturing sector, South Africa

The Status of B2B E-Commerce in the South African Manufacturing Sector: Evolutionary or Revolutionary?

While B2B e-commerce represents a major technological innovation and marks a significant development in organisational interconnectivity (i.e., the ability to network both internally and externally), it is premature to categorise e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector as ‘revolutionary’. A technological revolution implies a historic transformation bringing about profound, pervasive change in business processes. The research findings reveal that rather than a ‘great event’ having occurred, the reality of e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector appears to be more mundane, i.e. the result of an evolutionary process of IT integration into existing work practices. Therefore, e-commerce cannot claim to have radically changed the way most business is conducted on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, a technology-focused approach to e-commerce tends to deflect attention away from farreaching systemic changes that need to be made in the South African manufacturing sector

Status of B2B e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector : evolutionary or revolutionary?

While B2B [business-to-business] e-commerce [electronic commerce] represents a major technological innovation and marks a significant development in organisational interconnectivity (i.e., the ability to network both internally and externally), it is premature to categorise e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector as ‘revolutionary’. A technological revolution implies a historic transformation bringing about profound, pervasive change in business processes. The research findings reveal that rather than a ‘great event’ having occurred, the reality of e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector appears to be more mundane, i.e. the result of an evolutionary process of IT integration into existing work practices. Therefore, e-commerce cannot claim to have radically changed the way most business is conducted on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, a technology-focused approach to e-commerce tends to deflect attention away from farreaching systemic changes that need to be made in the South African manufacturing sector

Determining Correlations Between Library Usage and Student Success at the Durban University of Technology: A Pilot Study

Thorpe et al. (2016: 373) note that there is a growing trend for academic libraries to adopt measures that demonstrate the value of the library in the context of student success. While it may seem intuitive to librarians that students who engage more with library services and resources learn more, Oakleaf (2017) cautions that providing reliable evidence to support this is not straightforward. Librarians are aware of the numerous activities students engage with in the library, and, according to Soria, Fransen and Nackerud (2013), it is important to examine the differences of each of those interactions in relation to student success. To provide reliable and contemporary evidence of associations of library usage and student success, a multi-phase quantitative student success project was undertaken at a single site library, BM Patel Library, at the start of the first semester of 2017. The first phase of the project provided a comprehensive view of the use of physical and virtual library services at BM Patel Library by undergraduate Faculty of Management Sciences students. Five service points were identified that provided the data for this study. Statistics were collected from library entrance points, library book loans, computer use, laptop use, and off-campus use. The sample consisted of students enrolled in three departments: Marketing and Retail Management, Public Management and Economics, and Human Resource Management. These departments were selected based on the analysis of library visits of all students who visited the BM Patel Library in the first semester. According to the ACRL findings on academic library impact on student success, there is compelling evidence that library use and information literacy (IL) attendance increases student success (Burrows 2011). There are limited local studies that attempt to determine the impact of IL training on student success. This could be due to challenges in the collection of relevant data and/or the use of the data to draw correlations to student success reliably. This paper reports on the second phase of the project, which goes beyond the data from service points and incorporates data from three additional sources: IL attendance, IL assessment results, as well as semester marks of students in the selected departments

The Status of B2B E-Commerce in the South African Manufacturing Sector: Evolutionary or Revolutionary? 1

While B2B e-commerce represents a major technological innovation and marks a significant development in organisational interconnectivity (i.e., the ability to network both internally and externally), it is premature to categorise e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector as ‘revolutionary’. A technological revolution implies a historic transformation bringing about profound, pervasive change in business processes. The research findings reveal that rather than a ‘great event ’ having occurred, the reality of e-commerce in the South African manufacturing sector appears to be more mundane, i.e. the result of an evolutionary process of IT integration into existing work practices. Therefore, e-commerce cannot claim to have radically changed the way most business is conducted on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, a technology-focused approach to e-commerce tends to deflect attention away from farreaching systemic changes that need to be made in the South African manufacturing sector

Connecting to global markets in the Internet age: The case of South African wooden furniture producers

This article assesses the extent to which Internet connectivity and electronic commerce have the capacity to assist South African wooden furniture producers (SAWFPs) in securing improved access to international markets. The current pressures of globalisation and the challenge to direct overseas market expansion underscore the importance of e-commerce for the local wooden furniture sector. The article argues that while e-commerce capabilities are not a substitute for a systematic export strategy, they are nonetheless important for SAWFPs, as they are struggling to compete in a globalised and interconnected world that is organised around integrated trading systems and networked communication and information flows. However, participation in e-commerce by SAWFPs is currently very limited owing to a variety of factors, such as lack of infrastructure and awareness, high costs of Internet connectivity and inadequate skilled human resources. The article discusses the implications of the findings for policy.

The Dynamics and Impacts of B2B E-commerce on the South African Manufacturing Sector

This paper explores the current state of play and likely future direction of business-tobusiness electronic commerce in the South African manufacturing sector. The empirical evidence presented draws on 120 firm-level interviews, and 31 personal interviews with industry experts. The research findings highlight the fact that B2B e-commerce is in an inchoate stage of development in the South African manufacturing sector, with sociotechnical factors and contemporary market dynamics heavily influencing its evolutionary trajectory. Overly optimistic and technicist approaches to e-commerce do not take into account the real world of global trade and production networks and the position of South African manufacturing firms within it. The paper concludes that e-commerce development in the South African manufacturing sector is likely to be a cumulative, incremental and path-dependent process, that takes the form of the steady accumulation of tacit capability, rather than a sequence of discrete acts of technology building. Note that in the context of this paper, ‘digital economy ’ refers to economic transactions and economic functions that are governed and executed digitally, i.e. through the convergence of digital computing and telecommunication

Deconstructing the South African Government's Information and Communication Technologies for development discourse

No Abstract. Africa Insight Vol. 35(3) 2005: 3-1

countries (LDCs)

promise of e-business for less develope