The European e-Business Report The European e ... - empirica

The European E-Business Report 2005
Part 3: Contributions
Introduction
As in previous editions of the European E-Business Report, e-Business W@tch has invited
distinguished colleagues who work on e-business related topics in their organisation to contribute an
article to the report. For this year's edition, we asked for contributions that outline e-business
developments from a national perspective of one of the EU Member States. Authors give an overview
of the main e-business related policies in the respective countries, and comment on the state-of-play
in e-business adoption by firms, based on the most recent available data.
The first article of this part features selected results of a current study conducted for DG Enterprise &
Industry about the impacts of national and regional e-business policies. 96 The study shows that
common good practices in e-business policy making can be identified, although the different nature
and objective of individual policies clearly requires different implementation mechanisms. For example,
it makes a big difference whether the focus is on general awareness raising, or whether policies have
moved to the 'next phase' on the e-maturity ladder by tailoring their support activities to the need of
individual SMEs. The policies studied (from Finland, France, Sweden and the UK/Wales) include
both types of initiatives.
In the subsequent chapter, Stefanos Karapetsis (of Mellon Group) comments on e-business
developments in Greece. Most data indicate that Greek enterprises, despite substantial Government
efforts, are still lagging behind in terms of ICT adoption and e-business activity compared to the EU
average. However, the author concludes with an optimistic scenario, arguing that "Greece is at a
crossroads as an economy and as 'e-conomy'", and presents reasons why "one can expect the
acceleration of ICT use and e-business growth in the future".
In contrast to Greece, the Netherlands is an advanced country in information society development.
Ronald Batenburg from Utrecht University concludes that the Netherlands can be described as a
traditional, but progressive and service-oriented country and economy, both in terms of e-business
adoption and policy. He argues that The Netherlands hold "a tradition in both ICT and interorganizational
cooperation", and that the nature of "e-business smoothly aligns with many Dutch
interests and industries".
Tomas Sabol, Radoslav Delina and Viliam Vajda from the Technical University of Košice introduce
relevant developments in Slovakia. The country, which joined the EU in 2004, adopted a national
Action Plan based on the eEurope 2005 Action Plan with e-business related tasks. The authors outline
the activities launched within this framework, and point out the challenges involved and the mixed
outcomes. As in the case of Greece, e-business activity by firms is still limited in Slovakia, in particular
among SMEs. The authors explain some of the barriers to a more rapid uptake.
An interesting case study in e-business development is Spain, possibly one of the most decentralized
European countries. Jesús Galván, Professor at the Schiller International University, Madrid Campus,
confirms the general assessment by e-Business W@tch regarding the dynamic development in this
country 97 and he concludes that "e-business has a promising future in Spain". Notwithstanding some
challenges, he argues that ICT infrastructure is evolving at a good rate, that "most of the companies
96
97
Results are based on the first Interim Report of the EC study "Impact Assessment of National and Regional e-
Business Policies", which is currently being conducted by Databank Consulting, IDATE and empirica GmbH
on behalf of the European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry. The Interim Report contains the
evaluation results for five policies. The final study report (with results for 10 policy initiatives) is expected for
early 2006.
Cf. Part 1 of the report, and e-Business W@tch (2005), Pocketbook of e-Business Indicators, p. 14: "Dynamic
development in Poland and Spain"
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