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The Adoption of Business-to-Business E-Commerce: Empirical Evidence for German Companies

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  • Bertschek, Irene
  • Fryges, Helmut

Abstract

Although in its infancy, one promising application of Internet technology for firms is so-called Internet commerce or electronic commerce. This paper analyses the determinants of B2B (business-to-business) adoption borrowing from the literature on the adoption of new technologies and considering factors like firm size, corporate status, human capital and international competitive situation. An ordered probit model is applied to a data set containing about 3,000 enterprises from the German manufacturing industry and the German services sector in the year 2000. We find positive and significant effects of firm size, the share of highly qualified employees and the export share. An IT-intensive production process enhances the probability of a broad use of B2B e-commerce. An important influence on the use of B2B is the bandwagon effect, implying that firms are more likely to use this new Internet application if others within the same industry likewise do it. We find no significant effects of firm age and of the fact that a firm belongs to a group of companies as measures of a firm?s flexibility and financial power.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertschek, Irene & Fryges, Helmut, 2002. "The Adoption of Business-to-Business E-Commerce: Empirical Evidence for German Companies," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-05, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:892
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    Cited by:

    1. Spyros Arvanitis & Marius Ley, 2013. "Factors Determining the Adoption of Energy-Saving Technologies in Swiss Firms: An Analysis Based on Micro Data," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(3), pages 389-417, March.
    2. van der Wiel, Henry & van Leeuwen, George & Hempell, Thomas, 2004. "ICT, Innovation and Business Performance in Services: Evidence for Germany and the Netherlands," ZEW Discussion Papers 04-06, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Engelstätter, Benjamin & Sarbu, Miruna, 2011. "The adoption of social enterprise software," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-078, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Heinz Hollenstein & Martin Woerter, 2004. "The Decision to Adopt Internet-based E-Commerce. An Empirical Analysis Based on Swiss Firm-level Data," KOF Working papers 04-89, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    5. Chia-Lin Chang & Michael McAleer & Yu-Chieh Wu, 2015. "Industrial Agglomeration and Use of the Internet," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2015-09, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    6. Elaine Ramsey & Patrick Ibbotson & Patrick Mccole, 2008. "Factors That Impact Technology Innovation Adoption Among Irish Professional Service Sector Smes," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(04), pages 629-654.
    7. Mehmet Ali Ekemen & Ayta? Y?ld?r?m, 2016. "E-Business Usage in Tourism Industry: Drivers and Consequences," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 302-330, December.
    8. Vu Linh Toan Le & Tien Hoang Nguyen & Khanh Duy Pham, 2023. "What Drives Industry 4.0 Technologies Adoption? Evidence from a SEM-Neural Network Approach in the Context of Vietnamese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-32, March.
    9. Chia-Lin Chang & Michael McAleer & Yu-Chieh Wu, 2018. "A Statistical Analysis of Industrial Penetration and Internet Intensity in Taiwan," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, March.
    10. Chia-Lin Chang & Michael McAleer & Yu-Chieh Wu, 2016. "Industrial penetration and internet intensity," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2016-06, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    11. Falk, Martin & Hagsten, Eva, 2015. "E-commerce trends and impacts across Europe," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PA), pages 357-369.
    12. Spyros Arvanitis & Marius Christian Ley, 2010. "Factors Determining the Adoption of Energy-saving Technologies in Swiss Firms," KOF Working papers 10-257, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    13. Hollenstein, Heinz & Woerter, Martin, 2008. "Inter- and intra-firm diffusion of technology: The example of E-commerce: An analysis based on Swiss firm-level data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 545-564, April.
    14. Irene Bertschek & Ulrich Kaiser, 2004. "Productivity Effects of Organizational Change: Microeconometric Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 394-404, March.
    15. Hollenstein, Heinz, 2004. "Determinants of the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): An empirical analysis based on firm-level data for the Swiss business sector," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 315-342, September.
    16. Jordi Vilaseca-Requena & Joan Torrent-Sellens & Antoni Meseguer-Artola & Inma Rodríguez-Ardura, 2007. "An Integrated Model of the Adoption and Extent of E-Commerce in Firms," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 13(2), pages 222-241, May.
    17. Adel Ben Youssef & David Castillo Merino & Walid Hadhri, 2012. "Determinants of Intra-firm Diffusion Process of ICT: Theoretical Sources and Empirical Evidence from Catalan Firms," Post-Print halshs-00937176, HAL.
    18. Adel Ben Khalifa, 2022. "Inter- and Intra-firm Diffusion of Technology: the Example of Software, Hardware, and Network Communications Empirical Evidence for Tunisian Manufacturing Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(1), pages 236-263, March.
    19. repec:kap:iaecre:v:13:y:2007:i:2:p:222-241 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Heinz Hollenstein, 2002. "Determinants of the Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)," WIFO Working Papers 183, WIFO.

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