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e-Business in the chemical, rubber and plastics industryThe world's largest chemical company, BASF, would not subscribe to the scepticalattitude of US firms in this area. BASF is absolutely convinced that customer service isnot only an important application area for ICT, but possibly the single most important onein the future. "Being available for the customer whenever needed" is the firm's credo (seecase study in Section 5.2), and e-business is supposed to be the instrument to achievethis goal. The study supports this perspective. All evidence found study indicates thatBASF got the mission statement for its e-business strategy right.Exhibit 6.1-2: % of CRP companies expecting that ICT will have a high or medium impact on… in the future – by size-band (2007)ManagementAccountingR&DProductionMarketingLogisticsCustomerserviceEurope (EU-7)0 20 40 60 80 1004743536145556567505466656074715965SmallMediumLarge74726874It is clear, however, that the importance ofICT increases with the complexity ofoperations that have to be managed, andtherefore a global player will have to placemore emphasis on its e-business strategythan small firms, in particular if theyoperate in well-defined, structured markets.Reflecting this principle, more largecompanies anticipate ICT to have an impacton their business than smaller ones(see Exhibit 6.1-2). There is hardly adifference between medium-sized andlarge enterprises in the perceived futureimpact, however, and even the gap towardthe small firms is not very pronounced. Allin all, results point at a high level of awarenessfor ICT-related issues in the industry.A majority of firms, in particular amongmedium-sized and large ones, is convincedthat ICT will be important for them.Base (100%) = CRP companies using computers from 7 EU Member States(DE, FR, IT, ES, PL, SE, UK). N (2007) = 811.Weighting: in % of firms (from the respective size-band)Source: e-Business Survey 2007 by the SeBW6.1.2 A life-cycle perspective of e-business developmentsThe views of ICT as a general purpose technology (which is widely diffused and used)and as a technology that will be important in the future are not contradicting each other,as it might seem at first sight. The apparent paradox can be solved if ICT-enabledinnovation in business is regarded as a sequence of innovation processes, each withits own life-cycle, driven and enabled by technological progress and the resulting e-business applications and practices. Such a technology life-cycle can be structured intofour phases: 165165 See, for example, Gerpott 1999 and Wamser 2001.193