Can ICT-enabled Networks Streamline e-Business Adoption in SMEs?

The adoption of e-business configurations showed to bring sensible improvements to company performance in terms of efficiency, customers lock-in, and complementarities within the supply chain. The use of Information and Communication Technology, coupled with process redesign and organizational changes, have the potential to help small and medium firms (SMEs) to thrive in fast changing and globalizing markets. Nevertheless, the level of adoption of e-business in SMEs is still low and basic, hindering the chances of exploiting the benefits of networked organizational models for global competition. The reason is often represented by a set of barriers and limitations found at context, cultural and operations level. Initiatives to overcome these limits include awareness and competencies development programs, as well as technology solutions and business applications. A major limitation of these initiatives stays in the fact that they are often not integrated, resulting in non holistic approaches to solving a very complex and interrelated issue. In this article we illustrate an integrated information technology and management model supporting a set of initiatives to streamline the introduction of e-business in small and medium organizations. The model is implemented in an ongoing experiment conceived in the frame of digital divide discussion and research and aimed to create a learning network for developing intellectual capital in different Mediterranean countries.