It is generally believed that Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce has a great impact on business performance improvement. Considerable research also shows that another dependent variable, B2B e-commerce success, can be a good overall measure of B2B systems. This paper investigated and examined the impact of several factors, which are either internal or external to the firm on B2B performance improvement and B2B e-commerce success. It is suggested that the various factors affect B2B success through business performance improvement. A research model was developed to test and evaluate these factors. A survey instrument was developed to examine the relationships between these factors and business performance. Survey data was collected online from 143 companies in the U.S.A. and Taiwan where their B2B e-commerce systems were operational for more than 1 year. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was used to assess the measurement and the structural model. Analyses and results of the pooled survey data suggest that the following factors are significant in the B2B e-commerce environments: (a) alignment of business and e-commerce strategy has a positive impact on business performance, (b) strong relationships between the trading partners have a positive influence on business performance, and (c) B2B e-commerce success is significantly influenced by business performance improvements. Thus, firms that seek to implement successful B2B systems should focus on business performance improvements.

The thesis analyzes the opportunities and limits of application of international private law on the internet. The thesis consists of three areas of interest, one chapter each. The first chapter describes internet from relevantly technical point of view. Internet is distinguished from the services like WWW and analyzed by the view of law as medium that allows formation and realization of legal relationships. Identified are core internet characteristics which create impediments to the application of conflict of law rules. Particular attention is paid to the current state and future of geoidentification. The second chapter unveils possibilities of traditional methods of private international law to cope with the new environment. Firstly are outlined elements of international private law, consequently determined applicable methods and assets and drawbacks of their application on the internet. Finally are delimited applicable instruments in European and Czech law and analyzed from the point of eligibility to effectively govern legal relationship, preferably contracts, emerging on the internet. The last chapter deals with regulation of international B2B e-commerce. Firstly is defined the term itself, identified are the most important laws concerning the matter and finally is analyzed United Nations...

Grounding on institutional theory in organizational studies and e-commerce adoption literatures, this dissertation discusses the impact and effect of institutional environment on B2B e-commerce adoption. The institutional environment in question includes industrial, governmental, legal and national cultural factors. The study has been conducted in two phases. Phase I was in 2001-2003, as the infant stage of B2B e-commerce adoption. Phase II was in 2006-2007, reflecting the latest status of B2B e-commerce adoption. In both phases, the study collected and analyzed both secondary data at country-level and primary survey data at firm-level. The research methodology is a mixed approach of multi-time point, multilevel, multi-data source, multi-method, and comparative study. The cross-validated results of the study suggest that 1) the industrial pressure and/or encouragement is always the most powerful external facilitator for B2B e-commerce adoption; 2) at the beginning stage of e-commerce, the supportive government policy was a prime force to encourage private sector to adopt e-commerce; 3) as e-commerce becomes more prevalent and routine in business, e-commerce adoption becomes more business-driven, governmental policy loses its effect, and the legal environment becomes an important factor. The study is one of the first cross-country studies on the institutional environment in MIS research and fills the knowledge gap of understanding the external environment of e-commerce, especially from the temporal perspective. The research also offers empirical evidence to industrial practitioner and public policy-makers to develop e-commerce strategies.

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce adoption has become a necessity for most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), allowing them to gain and sustain competitive advantage in a dynamic competitive environment. Accepting the fact that B2B is adopted at different levels based on different resources leads to the acceptance that competitive advantage is gained and sustained on a level consistent with the level of adoption. This study employs quantitative method based on the positivism philosophy and deductive approach. A questionnaire survey technique was used to collect the data from the American and Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. Moreover, it used structural equation modelling with a sample of 320 and 260 manufacturing SMEs in the United States of America and Egypt respectively. The structural equation modelling (SEM) findings revealed that each level of B2B e-commerce adoption was affected by different factors from another level of adoption. Besides, there was a significant difference between the issues which faced manufacturing SMEs in USA and Egypt. Furthermore, in Egyptian manufacturing SMEs, relative advantage and competitive pressure have a significant effect on adoption behaviour. On the other hand, when American manufacturing SMEs made their decisions to adopt B2B e-commerce, they considered the main factors to be relative advantage, top management support, firm size and government support. In addition, the findings revealed that the higher the level of B2B e-commerce, which an SME adopted, the higher the level of competitive advantage it gained. However, in developing countries such as Egypt, SMEs remained far behind their peers in developed countries. In terms of theoretical implications, the study could be considered to be a unique study in the field of B2B e-commerce generally and B2B e-commerce in Egyptian manufacturing SMEs in particular. This is because, by looking back at the literature review, is clear that empirical studies into B2B e-commerce issues, including manufacturing SMEs, remained embryonic in developed countries and rare in the developing countries. This is especially so in the Arabic countries. In addition, most previous studies focused on a broad and generic view of the SMEs’ adoption of B2B e-commerce or on the relationship between adoption of IT and competitive advantage. This study was conducted in a cross-country context; it considered the manufacturing SMEs’ adoption of B2B e-commerce from the perspective of the level of adoption. Therefore, it made an original empirical contribution towards the current body of knowledge on the adoption of B2B e-commerce through the identification of manufacturing SMEs adoption levels of B2B e-commerce; their impacts on competitive advantage; and the significant factors which influenced each adoption level of B2B e-commerce in USA and Egypt. In addition, this study used TOE as the theoretical framework in investigating the factors affecting B2B e-commerce in SMEs and focused largely on the factors affecting each level; this is a new contribution to the extant literature. Turning to the study’s practical implications, important implications for the manufacturing SMEs’ owner/managers can be drawn from the findings to help them to understand their environments as, in a cross-country business context, they move through the different stages of adopting B2B e-commerce. In addition to the implication for manufacturing SMEs’ owners/managers, this study presents important implications for governmental, nongovernmental organisations and other institutions linked to manufacturing SMEs. Similar to other studies, this study has a number of limitations. The main one is that it lacks the use of qualitative analysis to depict how SMEs understand the concept of competitive advantages and how this helps them to survive and grow.

近年來，電子商務飛速發展，已取得長足進步。電子商務可以高效利用有限資源，加快商業週期循環，節省時間、降低成本、提高利潤和增強企業競爭力，並以傳統經營方式所無法比擬的優點受到全球關注。因此，電子商務給企業所帶來的影響是非常重要且值得探討。 在電子商務貿易模式中，信息的高效傳遞成為平台上賣方增強競爭力的重要手段。但是過去鮮少有研究以信號理論觀點，切入探討B2B交易平台上賣方信號對買方之吸引力，以及鮮少有研究探討其中是否有其他變數可能會增加或削弱兩者之間的關係。因此本研究旨在探討賣方採用的信號與買方聯繫賣方之可能性的關係，並以企業外部市場化發展程度因素作為干擾變數。 本文共蒐集167家中小企業信息作為研究對象，並以階層回歸作為分析方法，進一步釐清賣方所採用的信號與買方聯繫賣方之可能性之間的關係，並以企業外部市場化發展程度作為干擾變數，研究外部環境情況是否會強化賣方所採用的信號與買方聯繫賣方之可能性之間的關係，補充過去文獻鮮少探討之觀點。冀望本研究結果能為平台賣方之決策者在考慮如何運營，提供一些參考與建議。

Today, manufacturing firms have started using e-commerce to sell their products and services online. The adoption of e-commerce has made it possible to move the interaction that has traditionally been made between a salesperson and customer through telephone or e-mail, towards making transactions online. However, even though e-commerce can help increase revenue or create competitive advantages, it is important for firms to understand the interaction that occurs when value is co-created in ecommerce. It is evident that there are strong drivers, but also challenges that firms need to be aware of in order to form a successful e-commerce strategy. Since little research exists on the interaction that takes place when value is co-created through e-commerce, the purpose of this study is to describe this interaction along with drivers and challenges that are associated with it. To answer the research questions, a qualitative study was conducted by interviewing managers from B2B manufacturing firms that are using ecommerce. The results show that interaction between provider and customer is improved by e-commerce. Easy access to information and new digital value proposals were found to be central interactions. Traditional dialogue is largely replaced by the ability for self-service, where the customer can themselves access information and manage orders. The main driver for providers to use e-commerce is strategic/competitive advantages with secondary drivers being efficiency/lower internal costs, and increased revenue. There are challenges associated with e-commerce. Primarily system integration and data security. The results from this research suggest that manufacturing firms should consider e-commerce in order to improve interaction with their customers to stay competitive in the future.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:29:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Goiany Segismundo Roriz Junior.pdf: 1114293 bytes, checksum: 0f37795e1c29b7ef7d17a6489397ea36 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-03-15 / This thesis presents a method for assessing a company s maturity to implement Business to Business (B2B). The items under analysis are the inhibitors of Industrial Management, which trouble the B2B implementation. We have interviewed people in different posts in the companies so we could visualize the points of view of several positions in each single company as to obtain how strongly these elements inhibit a B2B implementation. Through the Item Response Theory the proposed method allows to evaluate how prepared the company is or is not to overcome Industrial Management difficulties and the maturity degree for a B2B e-Commerce implementation. The research also provides directions to help unravel the inhibiting elements against the B2B e-Commerce. Such directions allow companies to improve their processes, and, ultimately, reach higher maturity levels to implement B2B e- Commerce. The method has been applied in eight pharmaceutical industries affiliated to the Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Industries in the State of Goiás - Brazil (Sindicato das Indústrias farmacêuticas do Estado de Goiás), and has led to the conclusion that it is possible to assess the maturity degree of a company intended for the implementation of the B2B e-Commerce through the evaluation of the inhibiting elements of the Industrial Management. / A Dissertação apresenta uma forma de avaliar a maturidade da indústria em implantar o business to business (B2B) a partir dos itens inibidores da Gestão Industrial que dificultam a sua implantação. Foram entrevistados cargos da alta direção, gerentes de compras, gerentes de TI, gerentes de vendas, compradores e vendedores, visualizando o ponto de vista de vários cargos dentro de uma única indústria, obtendo, assim, a intensidade dos fatores da gestão industrial que inibem o (B2B). O método possibilita, através da Teoria da Resposta ao Item (TRI), avaliar o quanto a indústria está preparada ou não para superar essas dificuldades, obtendo assim, a maturidade da indústria para implantar o comércio eletrônico B2B. A pesquisa também fornece diretrizes para auxiliar na resolução dos fatores que inibem o emprego do comércio eletrônico B2B. Estas diretrizes possibilitam às Indústrias melhorarem seus processos e, conseqüentemente, alcançarem níveis mais elevados de maturidade para implantação do comércio eletrônico B2B. O método foi aplicado em oito indústrias do ramo farmacêutico, filiadas ao Sindicato das Indústrias Farmacêutica do Estado de Goiás, chegando-se à conclusão de que é possível avaliar a maturidade das indústrias para a implantação do comércio eletrônico B2B, a partir de avaliação interna relativa aos fatores inibidores da gestão industrial.