ICT and e-business in the tourism industry ICT adoption ... - empirica

Tourism
Exhibit 3-22: Main location of suppliers in e-procurement
0 20 40 60 80 100
Total Tourism (EU-10)
26
59
16
Micro (1-9 empl.)
17
70
13
Small (10-49 empl.)
18
67
15
Medium (50-249 empl.)
20
69
11
Large (250+ empl.)
36
48
16
Accommodation sector
14
76
10
Gastronomy
26
65
8
Travel agencies & tour operators
10
65
25
All 10 sectors (EU-10)
24
64
12
Mainly regional Mainly national Mainly international
Base (100%): Companies placing orders online (without "don't know"). N (for sector, EU-10) = 421.
Weighting: Totals (for the sector and for all 10 sectors) are weighted by employment and should be
read as "enterprises comprising …% of employment in the sector(s)". Figures for size-bands are in
% of enterprises from the size-band. Figures for tourism sub-sectors are in % of enterprises from
the respective sub-sector. Questionnaire reference: E5.
Source: e-Business W@tch (Survey 2006)
Impact of e-sourcing on supplier selection
As in previous years, e-Business W@tch asked companies that use e-procurement
whether this has had an impact on the selection of suppliers, i.e. whether the number of
suppliers has rather increased or decreased due to their e-procurement activities, or
whether this was without impact on the number of suppliers.
A majority of companies from the tourism industry (about 63%), as in most sectors
studied this year, reported that e-procurement does not have an effect on the number
of suppliers. However, 36% of tourism enterprises declared that the number has
increased, which is higher than the respective all-sectors average of 26%. It appears that
e-sourcing has helped companies finding new suppliers in the market; in other words, the
market transparency in the tourism industry has increased. At the same time, the number
of firms which say that they have consolidated their suppliers’ base is negligible (less
than 1%).
This finding is somewhat in conflict with the fact that many large firms which have
established (or are establishing) sophisticated e-procurement schemes have the explicit
objective to streamline their supplier base. ICT empowers them to bundle procurement
activities of different establishments or even branches in order to exploit economies of
scale. However, previous sector studies by e-Business W@tch have already shown that it
is hardly possible to support this evidence by data from the e-Business Survey. The main
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