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The aim of this thesis is to examine electronic business developments in manufacturing SMEs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The lack of studies into the field of e-business and manufacturing SMEs stimulated this piece of research which aims to bridge the knowledge gap that exists in current academic research and literature. The recent economic history of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland shows that whilst the manufacturing industry has played an important role in economic development over the years, it is now facing the same problems as many of the advanced western economies. Consequently the industrial structure of the marketplace is no longer sufficient, particularly for manufacturing SMEs, who have been impacted by enormous changes in their business processes (Raymond and Bergeron, 2008). Difficulties are apparent within the traditional (sunset) manufacturing industries and in part, technological changes have fuelled their continued decline. At the same time, new technology-based, knowledge intensive manufacturing sector (sunrise) firms have emerged. However due to a dearth of research, the diffusion and assimilation of e- business in various manufacturing sectors represents a key area of investigation (Raymond, 2005; Raymond and St. Pierre, 2007). Theoretically this study has been informed by two contrasting schools of thought namely technological determinism and social constructivism, which philosophically underpin both the diffusion and adoption of a technological innovation, in this case e-business developments. Technological determinism provides a broad view of technology diffusion where technology is viewed as the principal root of societal transformation and is a totally independent process beyond all human control (McLuchan, 1970). Social constructivism proffers the alternative view that the development of a technology is a dependent process, involving actors and social groups who engage in strategies to win from the opposition and to shape technology according to their own plan (Brey, 1997) The research employs a sequential mixed methods (survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews) approach. The rationale for this approach is that the quantitative phase provides an exploratory and broad understanding of the research problem, while the qualitative phase refines and explains those statistical results by exploring participants' views in more depth (Creswell, 2003; Rossman and Wilson, 1985; Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998). The objectives of the study are to: assess the level of adoption and usage of e-business in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; to determine the drivers that influence e-business adoption and the benefits derived from e-business developments; to examine the barriers that influence e-business developments; and to understand the factors that impact upon e-business usage and development in Ireland. The main conclusions drawn from the findings are that within the Irish manufacturing sector, SMEs are adopting and developing e-business at varying degrees. However in the majority of cases e-business adoption is erratic and e-business development remains 11 elementary. It is also the case that the full benefits of e-business are not being realised in the majority of firms. Competitive rivalry is dictating the manufacturing firms' strategic approach to e-business adoption and development and ironically one of the most significant barriers recognised by firms to e-enablement is lack of government support. Contrary to the technologically deterministic school of thought which suggests that e- business is adopted sequentially over time, the findings in this study indicate that within manufacturing SMEs the adoption process is a haphazard affair and takes a diverse, contingent and social route, which concurs with the philosophy of social constructivism. In light of the current study it is evident that a firm's environmental, strategic, managerial, operational and technological context are deemed to influence a manufacturing SME's assimilation of electronic business activities. Several practical recommendations are made to assist manufacturing SMEs in developing their use of JCTs. The research also adds to the knowledge base by making several theoretical contributions that serve to confirm, extend and disconfirm previous knowledge in the wider areas of e-business, manufacturing and SME literature. Future research in this area could be extended to other regions and other sectors. It could perhaps attempt to bridge the theory-practice gap by conducting a three strand study involving government, practitioners and academics. Longitudinal and multiple case studies research approaches could also expand on the current study.

The starting point of this research was the belief that manufacturing and similar industries need help with the concept of e-business, especially in assessing the relevance of possible e-business initiatives. The research hypotheses was that it should be possible to produce a systematic model that defines, at a useful level of detail, the probable e-business requirements of an organisation based on objective criteria with an accuracy of 85%-90%. This thesis describes the development and validation of such a model. A preliminary model was developed from a variety of sources, including a survey of current and planned e-business activity and representative examples of e-business material produced by e-business solution providers. The model was subject to a process of testing and refinement based on recursive case studies, with controls over the improving accuracy and stability of the model. Useful conclusions were also possible as to the relevance of e-business functions to the case study participants themselves. Techniques were evolved to synthesise the e-business requirements of an organisation and present them at a management summary level of detail. The results of applying these techniques to all the case studies used in this research were discussed. The conclusion of the research was that the case study methodology employed was successful. A model was achieved suitable for practical application in a manufacturing organisation requiring help with a requirements definition process.

The concept of Information Architecture (IA) has been independently explored by researchers and practitioners in Information Engineering, Information Systems (ISmanagement, information visualisation and Web site design. However, little has been achieved towards its standardisation within and across these subject domains. To bridge the existing subject divide this study conducts a systematic analysis of publications on frameworks for Information Architecture developed in the field of IS planning and Information Engineering and elicits both common and desirable IA dimensions. It concludes that regardless of their originating subject field, existing IA frameworks are internally focused and have limited effectiveness for dynamic e-business alliances. To address this deficiency, related subject domains such as Systems Theory and Systems Modelling, Web design and virtual team working are explored and ideas are generated for further architectural components such as events, standards, aggregation level and trust that are not supported by existing IAs, but are of high importance for e-business. These are synthesized with the most prevalent IA dimensions identified earlier into a conceptual framework for IA for electronically mediated business networks, called FEBus ffra. network for Information Architecture for Electronically mediated Business networks. The structural viability and usability of the proposed analytical vehicle are evaluated over the period 2001-2003 using a triangulation of a Delphi study, an electronic survey, and evaluation interviews. The participants, representing three self-selecting samples of experienced UK academics and practitioners interested in IA, confirmed the need for an IA framework for e-business alliances and proposed and proved the scope, merits and limitations of the tool. Their views formed the basis for some amendments to the framework and for recommendations for future research. This thesis presents an original contribution to IA knowledge through the comprehensive critical analysis of frameworks on IA and the development of a set of fundamental requirements for IA for e-business environments. Its importance is also seen in the synthesis of the research on 1A conducted in different subject areas. The architectural tool built as an extension of the reviewed IA works constitutes another original aspect of this research. Finally, the novel multi-method evaluation approach employed in the study and the critical examination of its operability, present an advancement of existing knowledge on methodological diversity in IS research.

M. Tech. (Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / Internet and online shopping are gaining more attention and momentum, and businesses are moving online, not as a matter of choice, but as a matter of necessity. Online shopping satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intentions are now at the forefront for most online shops’ strategies. Investigating this phenomenon within a South African context is crucial, considering the fact that online shopping is a recent trend in the country. Most studies have investigated the determinants of satisfaction and loyalty in online shopping. Very few studies examined the factors that entice consumers to repurchase using online channels. Businesses discovered the importance of online shopping as a key success factor. Thus, customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intentions are the topics that have received much attention since the 1990s, as relationship marketing has become a popular marketing scheme. The purpose of this study was to examine online shopping satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intentions of Generation X consumers to better understand the development of the online shopping sector. There is an absence of research conducted in this direction, resulting in a lack of existing literature. To assist in filling this gap, this study attempted to measure the relationships between these variables. Previous research has shown that consumers’ intent to repurchase online is highly driven by their satisfaction; several articles were reviewed. The target population comprised of Generation X online consumers in southern Gauteng (Vaal region). A snowball sampling method was employed to identify the respondents fitting the predetermined sample criteria. A total number of 326 questionnaires were received. Topical areas, research methods and data acquiring procedures were described. This study develops a model, which aims to describe the degree to which the three variables relate to each other; satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intentions. The model describes the extent to which online repurchase intention is affected by satisfaction and loyalty, and the degree to which loyalty is influenced by satisfaction. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and the relationships. A key contribution of the SEM is the incorporation of the variables under analysis. The analysis finds that satisfaction has a positive significant relationship with repurchase intention, satisfaction also affects loyalty, and loyalty has a positive relationship with repurchase intentions. Lastly, based on the findings of this study, limitations were discussed along with the recommendations and concluding remarks

The business environment is impacted by technology both negatively and positively. To this extent, therefore, it is only prudent that the business environment adopts technological platforms, such as e-commerce, but there is a need to ascertain the risks involved, in order to optimize the benefits. This study set out to determine the impact of e-commerce on corporate governance in the retail sector in Zimbabwe. The corporates under investigation were Total Zimbabwe, Complete Solutions Architects, Venturecom and Kenac. The study included gathering the views of suppliers, customers, employees, government, and trade as well as investors. It employed a quantitative research design which involved the ultimate determination of the regression equation and a qualitative design which used interviews from stakeholder respondents. Some of the notable results from the questionnaire indicated poor customer relationship management on e-commerce platforms, a more stringent control than regulatory requirements and inadequate monitoring of the behaviour and activity of clients on e-commerce platforms. The investors also felt that the impact of electronic commerce impact on shareholder activity was not satisfactory especially with regards to meetings, but they indicated satisfaction with the enhancement of resources with regards to the generation of organizational profits. The regression equation finally revealed that for overall satisfaction, as a proxy for good corporate governance, as the dependent factor the statistically independent factors were investors and government as a trade, which could imply that these are the definitive stakeholders. From the interviews, there was indication some of the salient issues about e-commerce that were indicated included the untrustworthiness of intermediaries, the difficulty in describing physical goods and the difficulty of eliminating unethical practices on electronic commerce platforms. Inter-organizational compliance between the organizations and their stakeholders was also revealed as being a major factor that was needed in order to reduce the contagion effect. This action was followed by the view that the boards’ responsibilities and roles of the corporate boards needed had to change to manage risk on e-commerce platforms. The study concluded by suggesting a longitudinal study of the same topic incorporating more stakeholders and including more hypotheses to test all the possible and proposed relationships. More time is also recommended to cater for the fast development of ecommerce and IT in general / M. Sc. (Computing Science (Information Systems)) / School of Computing