The "Sectoral e-Business Watch" (SeBW) studies the impact of ICT and e-business on enterprises, industries and the economy in general. It highlights barriers for a wider or faster uptake of ICT and identifies public policy challenges arising from these developments. In this way, the SeBW supports the work of the European Commission's Enterprise and Industry Directorate General in the field of ICT (> policy context).
Current studies (in progress - to be published in September 2008) focus on the following sectors: the chemical industry, steel, furniture, retail, transport & logistics, and banking. Four cross-sectoral studies analyse RFID adoption patterns, Intellectual Property rights for ICT SMEs, links between ICT and energy consumption, and drivers and impacts of ICT uptake.
The "Sectoral e-Business Watch" is based on a service contract between DG Enterprise and Industry and empirica GmbH, involving the following main service providers: Altran Group, Databank, DIW Berlin, GOPA-Cartermill, IDC EMEA, Ipsos GmbH and Rambøll Management (> project team).
Perceived barriers to e-business adoption among transport & logistics services companies (EU-7, 2007)
Base: 806 companies from 7 EU countries (DE, ES, FR, IT, PL, SE, UK). Data for totals and sectors are weighted by employment ("firms representing x% of sector employment"), data for size-bands in % of firms.
Survey question: "Is … an important reason why your company does not use e-business more intensively?" –asked to firms that said that "some or none" of their business processes are conducted as e-business.
Transport and logistics (TL) underpin the economy, enabling the movement of goods, services and people as efficiently as possible. The SeBW asked TL companies with a low e-business activity why they did not use e-business in a more intensive way. One of the main reasons quoted was that customers and suppliers were "not yet prepared for it”. In addition, many small firms feel that they are simply too small for e-business. By contrast, the cost of the required technologies is not quoted as a major barrier.
More information: eBusiness Watch Brochure 2007/08
In 2007/08, the Sectoral e-Business Watch conducts the following e-business studies :
The top-5 publications of this website (by number of downloads) in July 2008 were:
