E-business strategy: how companies are shaping their manufacturing and supply chain through the Internet

Purpose - This paper, originally published in 2003, aims to explore the actual adoption of internet technologies in supply chain processes. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on survey data from a large sample of European manufacturing firms participating in the IMSS survey. Findings - The interest of both researchers and practitioners around the use of internet-based tools to support business processes has been quite high in the last few years. However, despite the initial enthusiastic expectations, it is still not completely clear whether these expectations have been translated into business reality. Results show a close link between the use of internet tools and the level of integration with customers and suppliers, thus suggesting the need to define e-business strategies in coherence with the use of traditional integration mechanisms. Originality/value - Four e-business strategies are identified and their relationship with contingent factors and supply chain integration mechanisms is investigated.