IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/kietrp/2022_008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Analysis of E-Commerce Exports by SMEs and Policy Implications amid the Transition to Endemic COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Youngjoo

    (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade)

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic transitions to an endemic phase worldwide, the expansion of e-commerce exports is likely to continue. The strategic advantages of e-commerce exports can be leveraged to boost exports for SMEs. Promoting e-commerce exports for policy purposes requires policy development based on an understanding of the characteristics of e-commerce exports. According to surveys of SMEs, the current structure and patterns of e-commerce exports by SMEs are not well suited to capture the strategic benefits of e-commerce exports. Without policy intervention, e-commerce exporters may increase slightly in number, but it would be difficult to expect any high-performing e-commerce exporters to emerge among SMEs. The Korean government should take a distinctive policy approach to enhance the export momentum of SMEs, taking advantage of the expansion of e-commerce exports. Most of all, policy priorities should focus on equipping SMEs with greater export capabilities in the e-commerce market. While it would be better for the government to let the market do its work in areas where immediate effects are expected — such as supporting SMEs to penetrate major online marketplaces, or in areas where dedicated private players are active — from a policy perspective, it would be more effective to focus on SMEs which are interested in e-commerce exports but cannot afford the necessary investments. The government should take policy steps to create a robust ecosystem which builds a broader base for e-commerce exports and upgrades the e-commerce export structure. It can do so by increasing the number of e-commerce exporters, assisting exporters in expanding to e-commerce exports, and increasing their sales exposure to e-commerce. The government should step up policy efforts to better align e-commerce exports with offline exports, and thus scale up e-commerce exports, allowing offline SMEs to pursue exports across offline and online marketplaces.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Youngjoo, 2022. "An Analysis of E-Commerce Exports by SMEs and Policy Implications amid the Transition to Endemic COVID-19," Research Papers 22/8, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:kietrp:2022_008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4315578
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Online Marketplace; e-commerce Export Structure; e-commerce Market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:kietrp:2022_008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Aaron Crossen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/kiettkr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.