The Use of e-Business by Small Companies in Emerging Countries: Reflections on a Business Model

Abstract

Organizations have been taking advantage of e-business as an innovative opportunity to improve business results, but small companies have not been adopting this tool as quickly as large corporations. There are several studies on the adoption of e-business in developed countries, but there are fewer studies on this topic in emerging Latin American countries. Thus, the goal of this study is to describe the business model of small companies that have adopted e-business in the trade and service sectors of an emerging Latin American country. We evaluate the results and difficulties of adopting e-business using a quantitative approach trough a survey data. The main results of the study are as follows: the owners/shareholders evidently play a central role in making decisions about the adoption of e-business, the main value delivered from using the internet is improved brand or product awareness, and one-third of the companies surveyed have already separated physical store operations from the virtual store. The companies using e-business achieved increased business and an expanded geographic scope of sales. The main difficulty that they encountered was training personnel to work on the internet.