Contrasted Paths of Adoption: Is E-business Really Converging Toward a Common Organizational Model?

This paper seeks to provide a clearer understanding of discrepancies observed in the level, pace and style of e‐business development across countries and industries. It is based on an original survey performed on 1,100 firms in five developed countries. Through in‐depth analyses of the adoption, use and impact of e‐business technologies and methods we highlight contrasted paths of adoption across countries and industries that cannot be explained by institutional and business factors alone. The dynamic of adoption or various types of technologies engages business networks on contrasted self‐reinforcing paths that do not necessarily converge toward a common way of using ICTs to buy and sell or coordinate online. There are clearly two contrasted strategies. The first is to adopt e‐business technologies and methods to enhance coordination with business partners. Such a strategy is aimed at saving costs. The second consists in adopting e‐commerce technologies to buy and sell online. The latter strategy aims at increasing sales, but does not systematically do so. Success is linked to re‐engineering and to the adoption of automated methods of coordination. Contrasted initial conditions result in businesses taking one of these two paths or blocking adoption at some point.