Abstract
The objective of this qualitative study was to understand the factors that hinder large industry organizations in implementing e-Business solutions. The study included 4 organizations that operated in heterogeneous business networks consisting also of small partners. Interviews were conducted with managers of IT, purchasing and business development. The results indicate that the organizations faced a mixture of intertwined, accumulative challenges. Lack of IT resources and growing reliance on third parties had reduced IT expertise and made investments difficult. At the same time, e-Business projects were found to be very demanding to plan and execute, and with no e-Business knowledge or conscious e-Business strategies in place, the organizations were progressing haphazardly. The heterogeneous business environment also posed external challenges with partners having highly-disparate IT capabilities. Existing e-Business technologies appeared either inadequate for the needs of these networks or the appropriate technology was entirely missing.
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Pesonen, T., Smolander, K. (2011). Observations on e-Business Implementation Capabilities in Heterogeneous Business Networks. In: Skersys, T., Butleris, R., Nemuraite, L., Suomi, R. (eds) Building the e-World Ecosystem. I3E 2011. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 353. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27260-8_17
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