Newsletter August 2007

The studies of 2007/08 - sectors and topics in focus

 

The Sectoral eBusiness W@tch 2007/2008 will present studies on six selected sectors and four cross-sector topics. Sectors include chemicals, rubber and plastics; steel; furniture; retail, transport services and logistics; and banking. While steel, furniture and transport services are new to the e-Business Watch, the other sectors were already covered in previous phases.  The four special topics are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Intellectual property for ICT-producing SMEs, ICT and e-business implications for energy consumption, and economic impact and drivers of ICT adoption and diffusion.

In the following, the subjects dealt with in the studies are described more detailed.

 

Sectors

• Chemicals, rubber and plastics
  The chemicals, rubber and plastics (CRP) industries are an economically important sector, accounting for about 14% of industrial value added and providing jobs for about 3.6 million people in the EU-25. eBusiness W@tch covered the CRP sector in its surveys of 2002 and 2003. Several sector studies conducted in other manufacturing industries in 2005 and 2006 have shown that e-business has quite dynamically developed in manufacturing and that it had significant impact on business processes in the value chain. It is likely that similar developments have also occurred and gained momentum in the CRP industry since the sector was last covered by e-Business W@tch. More information...
• Steel
  The importance of the steel industry has been declining in the 20th century but since 2002 the industry experiences an unprecedented upturn in demand and output. Since the 1970s, e-commerce developed steadily  and burgeoned in the mid-1990s.  Large and very large companies that tend to be inflexible in process innovation dominate the steel industry. At the outset of the study, the steel industry can thus be expected to be a latecomer and laggard in e-business applications. More information...
• Furniture
  The EU furniture industry is an economically important, prospering and dynamic sector, employing 1.2 million people and generating a turnover of 109 billion euros in 2003.  The study will aim at assessing to which degree European firms in the furniture industry apply e-business in their internal and external business processes. It will highlight what the main barriers are to adopt e-business with particular regard to constraints that hinder Business-to-Business interoperability. More information...
• Retail
  The European retail industry is one of the largest economic sectors, employing more than 15 million people and representing approximately 43% of all European enterprises. Since the last analyses by e-Business W@tch in 2004 the European retail industry has been facing several challenges such as increased competition from new entrants and large international retail chains, increasing raw material prices and pressure on margins. The new report will assess whether ICT offers solutions to cope with these challenges by supporting the retail value chain. This does not only imply to enhance operational efficiency, leading to reduced cost and improved service delivery. It may also mean to support strategy development. More information...
• Transport services and logistics
  The transport and logistics services sector has not yet been covered by the e-Business W@tch.  ICT and e-business may have a crucial importance for the competitiveness of European transport companies. However, since the transport industry serves many other sectors, the availability of high quality transport and logistics services is of paramount importance for growth and competitiveness of the European economy. Strengthening the competitiveness of European transport companies may therefore be an important means to enhance economic performance in general. More information...
• Banking
  e-Business W@tch included the banking sector in its surveys of 2002 and 2003. Since the banking sector is actively using ICT and new developments and, according to the previous study, banking is one of the sectors in which customer-facing online transactions are most important, it is likely that further developments have occurred and gained momentum in the banking sector since it was last covered by e-Business W@tch. More information...

 

Cross-sector topic studies

• RFID adoption and implications
  The study will provide a top-down view of RFID adoption roadmap and challenges, starting from the overall picture at European level, then breaking down RFID use by industries and also analysing RFID applications in single firms. The study will focus on comparing RFID adoption patterns and drivers across the manufacturing, retail and transportation sectors.
• Intellectual property for ICT-producing SMEs
  The study will address issues of intellectual property (IP) protection in the universe of ICT-producing SMEs, including ICT manufacturing and services SMEs, excluding purely commercial-oriented enterprises. The main issues to be investigated will be: state of the art of IP protection, IP and competitiveness of  ICT-producing SMEs, IP protection and ICT-producing SME’s participation in cooperative research programmes, and economic and policy implications.
• Impact of ICT and e-business on energy use
  The motivation for undertaking an econometric analysis of the impact of ICT and e-business on energy use is twofold: The prime motivation is to analyse the impacts of energy use in light of global climate change, other environmental problems, and concerns about future energy supply security. A second motivation for the analysis is to study the impact of changes in energy prices. Particularly, it is interesting to investigate the relative and the combined impact of ICT and e-business diffusion and energy prices on energy consumption of ICT-using industries, and also to study the extent to which the spreading of ICT and e-business in the sectors studied are able to affect the price responsiveness of energy demand.
• Economic impact and drivers of ICT adoption
  By using econometric methods, this special study will analyse the economic impact and drivers of ICT adoption in European enterprises in selected economic sectors. The purpose of this report is threefold: (1) to report on the methodology, theoretical and empirical model specifications and data sets used; (2) to provide a synopsis of the empirical results obtained (including results from selected cross-sectional comparisons); and (3) to present the conclusions and policy recommendations that can be drawn from the analysis.