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

The European E-Business Report 2005
1.7 e-Business Activity Views: Conclusions and Lessons
Learned
1.7.1 Introduction
In 2004/05, e-Business W@tch collected more than 90 e-Business Activity Views, including examples
from all sectors covered, and from nearly all EU Member States, the USA, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey
and Switzerland. Activity Views are snapshots of real-life e-business activity in companies from the
sectors studied. These short case studies 38 have the objective to complement the quantitative picture
of e-business adoption from the e-Business Survey 2005, and to indicate concrete impacts of e-
business activity in enterprises.
Activity Views are based on personal interviews with company representatives and desk research.
Most of the Activity Views were presented in the Sector Studies of 2005, either in full detail (as 'case
studies') or in summary (as 'business examples'); some further Activity Views that could not be
included in Sector Studies will be published on the website. This section presents a brief synopsis of
the main results and offers conclusions.
Selection and types of Activity Views
Activity Views were mainly selected on the basis of their relevance for the e-business issues analysed
in the various Sector Studies, with the intention to validate, illustrate and contextualise the assessment
and findings presented in the studies. e-Business W@tch cooperated with local correspondents in
various EU Member States and the USA in collecting Activity Views. Examples include different types
of Activity Views:
• Best practices: Activity Views that represent good e-business practice within the respective
industry. Assessment could be based on the citation of the case in media (for example in e-
business magazines), or in references from technology providers.
• Innovative e-business approaches: Activity Views that represent innovative approaches and
methods of e-business, particularly if it can be argued that this practice might reveal some
insight about developments to be expected in the sector in the future.
• Lessons learned: Activity Views containing an interesting experience of a company, i.e.
lessons to be learned from the described activities. In this context, it is also possible to present
a case of "e-business failure".
• Typical example: Activity Views that represent typical state-of-the-art e-business activity in
the respective sector. Not all case studies need to be about exceptional activities.
• SME dimension: An adequate quota of Activity Views from small and medium-sized
enterprises was to be achieved, considering the rationale of e-Business W@tch to focus on e-
business implications for SMEs.
In total, about 45% of the Activity Views conducted in 2005 are about e-business initiatives of SMEs,
about 25% about activities of large firms, and the remaining ones (30%) describe projects and
initiatives rather than activities of individual companies (see Exhibit 1.7-1). The latter category includes
collaborative initiatives, e-business activities of industry associations, and examples of online trading
platforms. From a geographic perspective, about 70% of Activity Views focus on firms from the former
EU-15 Member States 39 , about 15% on enterprises in the 10 new Member States, about 8% are about
38
39
The term "case study" normally implies a more detailed and in-depth analysis of a specific example.
e-Business Activity Views presented by e-Business W@tch in sector studies have a scope of 2-4 pages on
average. However, they have in common with more detailed case studies that results are mostly based on
primary research, i.e. personal interviews with company representatives. Interviews were carried out either
face-to-face or by telephone.
The distribution of Activity Views mirrors the economic significance of the former EU-15, which account for
more than 80% of inhabitants and about 90% of GDP in the EU.
49