Exploring B-to-B e-commerce adoption trajectories in manufacturing SMEs

The benefits of e-business adoption: an empirical study of Swedish SMEs

“…The benefits of joining the e-business arena outweigh the costs for most organizations (Barau et al 2001;Lefebvre et al 2005;Straub and Klein 2001). However, the review of the literature shows that SMEs are using the Internet in most part for electronic mail and advertising and are not taking full advantage of e-business technologies when compared to large organizations (Fillis et al 2004;Peet et al 2002;Quayle 2002;Grandon and Pearson 2004).…”

The Adoption of Web-Based Marketing in the Travel and Tourism Industry: An Empirical Investigation in Egypt

“…Areas researched include the opportunities created by this new medium for small firms such as international market access, increased visibility and improved domestic market performance (Lefebvre et al, 2005;Coviello and McAuley, 1999;Keogh et al, 1998) as well as the barriers such as the lack of financial and non-financial resources, lack of the appropriate skills, under investment in staff training and poor knowledge of the Internet start up process (Lefebvre et al, 2005;Fillis and Wagner, 2007 ). To a lesser extent there has been a focus on the factors that affect the adoption of technological innovations including the Internet by SMEs (Bengtsson et al 2007;Bharati and Chaudhury, 2006;Lynskey, 2004).…”

“…They stressed that lack of adoption would result in a decrease in their competitive position. Based on an empirical study, Lefebvre et al (2005) added that the increased visibility offered by web presence is one of the important motivations behind SMEs e-commerce initiatives. Although these studies provided valuable insights into the benefits and barriers of web adoption by SMEs, however, they did not attempt to find the reasons behind SMEs adoption of the web and the different levels of adoption that may exist.…”

Modelling Owner Experience: Linking Theory and Practice

“…Hitt and Ireland (1985) measured 55 distinctive competencies on a seven-point scale ranging from "greatest strategic significance" to "strategically insignificant." Acar (1993) (Chandler and Jansen, 1992;Edelman, Brush and Manolova, 2001); market decision-making competencies (Cummins, Gilmore and Carson, Undated); export competencies (Julien and Ramangalahy, 2003); technical capability/computer technology competencies (Zinger, LeBrasseur and Zanibbi, 2001); innovative competencies (Lefebvre and Lefebvre, 2000); Euro/SME management competencies (Eyre and Smallman, 1998); and process competencies (Chandler and Jansen;Woolgar et al, 1998;Iles and Yolles, 2002;Hansen, Sondergard and Meredith, 2002;Van Gils and Zwart, 2004).…”

“…Au niveau de la variable, l'adoption d'une nouvelle technologie, le développement d'un nouveau produit, les communications en ligne, les promotions et la publicité, ainsi que les habiletés logicielles possèdent le plus fort pouvoir discriminatif entre les propriétaires d'entreprises qui veulent grandir et les autres. Pour finir, on passe en revue les implications pour la recherche à venir.Owner experience is central to firm growth and performance (Boyatzis, 1982;Chandler and Jansen, 1992;Chandler and Hanks, 1994;Leitch, 1995;Freel, 1998 Freel, , 1999Aliouat et al, 1999; Baldwin, 1997;Lefebvre and Lefebvre, 2000;Julien and Ramangalahy, 2003;Van Gils and Zwart, 2004). However, researchers have noted that the literature is fragmented, reflecting little consensus about the definition, construction and appropriate methodologies to examine experience (Reuber and Fischer, 1995;Smith and Morse, 2005).…”