The Shifting Sands of E-Commerce: Investigation of the Mapping Between Expected and Actual E-Commerce Benefits in SMEs

Abstract

Prior to the advent of e-commerce, the adoption and implementation of information technology (IT) in organisations was planned and controlled. As a result, the expected and actual (realized) benefits of the new technology could be mapped directly on to each other. However, no research has been carried out to date in order to determine whether this is still the case in the post-e-commerce era. This chapter aims to correct this by presenting the results of a study of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden that have adopted e-commerce technology. The study examined the correlations between the expected benefits of e-commerce (i.e., adoption criteria) as well as the correlations between the actual benefits. In both cases, the correlations were shown to exist. Finally, the study examined whether the direct mapping of criteria and benefits was still applicable. The results show that there is no direct mapping of IT criteria and benefits in the post-e-commerce era in SMEs.