Title: Typology for e-business activities in the agricultural sector

Authors: Z. Andreopoulou, G. Tsekouropoulos, T. Koutroumanidis, M. Vlachopoulou, B. Manos

Addresses: Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 247, 54124-Thessaloniki, Greece. ' Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124-Thessaloniki, Greece. ' Department of Rural Development, Democritus University of Thrace, Pantazidou 193, Orestiada, 68200, Greece. ' Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, Thessaloniki, 54006, Greece. ' Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124-Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: The internet constitutes an effective business resource as it provides a persistent communication infrastructure as well as huge business opportunities and information capital worldwide. The aim of this paper is to create a typology for e-business activities in the agricultural sector. The methodology concerns the study of the principles of e-business and its practice in the agricultural sector, the examination of the existing e-business models on the internet and, furthermore, the study of the websites promoting e-business in agriculture, their classification under the existing models and their evaluation through a multicriteria method. As a case study to apply the methodology described, the agricultural business sector in Greece is selected. Regarding classification, enterprises in the e-agricultural sector are classified according to the stage of the |interaction|, where beyond mere presence on the internet, there is a possibility for the user to navigate through the website and collect numerous information.

Keywords: e-business models; agriculture; website evaluation; internet; typology; electronic business; agricultural sector; Greece.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2008.017283

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2008 Vol.3 No.3, pp.231 - 251

Published online: 22 Feb 2008 *

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