E-Business in Micro and Small Enterprises: A Chance for Growth or a Sheet Anchor for Survival?
This paper discusses the use of E-Business Solutions (EBS) in Micro- and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in low-technology industries and its contribution to growth and survival for these firms. Our analysis is based on a survey of 619 MSEs of the German craft sector as well as 43 qualitative interviews in the bakery and construction trades. With regard to our survey we apply econometric techniques to test empirically on the relevance of several internal and external factors to implement EBS applications. The main results of our paper are that (i) the application of EBS differs to a large extent by trade and firm size, (ii) embeddedness in particular value chains is of importance for decisions on the implementation of EBS, (iii) organisational innovations are positively related to the usage of EBS, and (iv) firms that use e-commerce solutions would have performed badly in terms of sales growth if they had refused to apply this type of EBS.
Eckl, V., L. Trettin, D. Engel, M. Rothgang und T. Espig (2010), E-Business in Micro and Small Enterprises: A Chance for Growth or a Sheet Anchor for Survival?. Baltic Management Review, 5, 1, 27-46