Title: An empirical investigation into e-business adoption in the Scottish smaller firm

Authors: Beverly A. Wagner, Ian Fillis, Ulf Johansson

Addresses: University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK. ' University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK. ' Department of Business Administration, University of Lund, Sweden

Abstract: The purpose of this research was to investigate e-business adoption and e-supply strategies in Scottish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper summarises academic literature on supply chain management, e-commerce drivers and barriers and recent survey reports on the degree of e-business adoption in the UK and Ireland. We then describe the qualitative methodology undertaken, outline findings and discuss the implications from this study to e-supply strategies in the smaller firm. We also examine the role of the support agencies and how government could better serve the SME programmes of assistance. Finally, an outline for future research is presented.

Keywords: e-commerce; e-supply strategies; e-commerce adoption; e-business; SMEs; small-to-medium sized enterprises; Scotland.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2003.004113

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2003 Vol.1 No.4, pp.408 - 422

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

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