EBIP Synthesis Report
Overview
Graham Vickery, OECD
EBIP Workshop
29-30 October 2001, Rome
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Aims of the workshop
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Explore the rapidly evolving adoption and use of
e-commerce and the Internet
Discuss implications of e-commerce for firm
strategies
Examine impacts on sectoral dynamics and
market structure
Draw out e-commerce policy issues
Contribute to follow-up work
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EBIP project: participation
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Launched late 1999
OECD Working Part on the Information Economy
TNO supported by the Netherlands Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Telematica Instituut
IPTS (Seville)
National teams from the Netherlands, France,
Canada, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Norway, (Portugal),
Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
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Method and goals
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Common analytical framework and interview
procedure with established firms operating
mainly in B2B e-commerce
Firm case studies undertaken late 2000/early
2001. Detailed responses from 179+ firms
30 reports covering 14 sectors in 10 countries
Cross-country Synthesis Report
Need for policy-makers to understand the ecommerce environment of participants
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EBIP summary results
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E-commerce is part of a much larger business and
economic evolution partly driven by ICTs
Successful e-commerce applications usually part
of broader strategies to respond to business
challenges
But for many firms e-commerce represents a
major innovation in the ways of doing business
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Is e-commerce having significant
impacts on business?
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E-commerce strategies led more by commercial
than by technological considerations. The
‘commerce’ factor outweighs the ‘e’ factor
Many markets may be more open and efficient
with advantages for producers and consumers
E-commerce may provide new avenues for firms
to create new dominant positions or perpetuate
existing ones
Current strategies and practices will evolve
considerably, and monitoring e-commerce
impacts is only beginning
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Why do firms undertake e-commerce?
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Motivations to apply e-commerce are high where
ICT investment is already high and risk relatively
low. Most firms want to:
Reduce costs
Increase transaction speed and reliability
Improve management capabilities
Develop or improve collaboration capabilities
Create interdependencies
Better manage customer relations
Create more added value
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What activities are going on-line?
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Firms cautious about putting strategic activities
and transactions on the Web. When they do they
protect their transactions and advantages
Advertising catalogues, information services are
overwhelmingly on the WWW
Transactions (ordering, billing, payment, finance)
are on EDI, EDI over Internet, Extranets
Migration from EDI to Web-based systems, for
example in ordering, only partial
Most e-commerce innovations were still being
planned or developed when interviewed
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What kinds of innovations are taking
place due to e-commerce?
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Product innovations are more common among
firms with intangible assets
Process innovations are more frequently
implemented by large firms
Expansion and segmentation (organisational
innovations) are more common for firms with
intangible assets, and small firms are involved in
and seem to benefit from expansion strategies
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What are some quantifiable impacts?
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Vast majority of firms considered e-commerce
facilitates the management of business
relationships
For almost half of firms, e-commerce tools
reduced the cost of reaching new customers and
suppliers
A greater mix of direct and intermediated sales
help customers bypass traditional intermediaries
and facilitate new ones
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Quantifiable impacts continued
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Most firms who replied claim the level of
employment was unaffected - composition often
changed to include more high skilled workers
Many firms reported positive effects on turnover
and profitability
E-commerce developments reinforce existing
trends. Established incumbents and their
business models will survive and e-commerce
may not alter established market power. “Second
mover” advantages appear important
Very few firms saw e-commerce destabilising
existing relations and small firms may not be
advantaged
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Quantifiable impacts continued
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Successful firms have coherent overall strategy
with e-commerce and IT skills development
embedded in this strategy
The impacts of e-commerce within firms are
difficult to quantify.
- problems isolating effects coming solely from ecommerce
- most firms are still in the implementation stage
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Some policy directions
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Firms saw three policy areas as important:
- competence factors: general education, specific IT and ebusiness skills
- cost factors, including technology
- confidence factors including international clarification,
enforcement and cross-border inter-operability of existing
legal frameworks rather than creating new ones
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Additional OECD analysis suggests areas for
policy action:
- skills/competences
- infrastructure (pricing, broadband)
- market structure/competition
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