ICT and e-Business Impact in the Retail Industry - empirica

e-Business in the Retail SectorAnnex I: The e-Business Survey 2007 –methodology reportBackground and scopeThe Sectoral e-Business Watch collects data relating to the use of ICT and e-business inEuropean enterprises by means of representative surveys. The e-Business Survey 2007,the fifth in a series of surveys conducted in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006, was based on5,325 telephone interviews with decision-makers from five industry sectors in nine EUcountries and the USA. Interviews were carried out from August to October 2007, usingcomputer-aided telephone interview (CATI) technology. The overall survey was dividedinto four separate projects (each using a separate questionnaire) focussing on differentsectors and specific topics (see Exhibit A1-1). This document contains methodologicalnotes for Projects 1 and 2, which accounted for 4,369 of all interviews conducted.Exhibit A1-1: Components ("projects") of the e-Business Survey 2007Surveyproject12Focuse-Business inmanufacturinge-Business in retail,transport & logistics3 RFID adoption4Intellectual Property rightsin ICT SMEsSectors covered• Chemical, rubber and plastics• Steel• Furniture• Retail• Transport & logistics services• Manufacturing sectors• Retail• Transport services• Hospitals• ICT manufacturing• ICT services• Software publishingNo. ofinterviews21212248434683QuestionnaireThe questionnaires for Projects 1 and 2 contained about 70 questions which werestructured into the following modules:A: ICT Infrastructure and e-Business software systemsB: Automated data exchange (Project 1) / e-Business with customers and suppliers(Project 2)C: e-Standards and interoperability issues (Project 1)D: Innovation activity of the companyE: ICT Skills requirements and ICT costsF: ICT Impacts, drivers and inhibitorsG: Background information about the companySome of the questions were the same or similar to those used in previous surveys inorder to highlight trends in the answers (notably in previously surveyed sectors such asthe chemical and retail industries). Other questions were introduced or substantiallymodified, in order to reflect recent developments and priorities. The survey placedspecial focus on the degree of process automation in companies, i.e. to what extentpaper-based and manually processed exchanges with business partners had beensubstituted by electronic data exchanges. Some questions were filtered, such as followupquestions dependent on previous answers, and no open questions were used.197