Exploring E-Marketing Practises as Tool for Globalisation by Egyptian SBEs

Introduction

Unquestionably Small Business Enterprises (SBE’s) are one of the most important tools to achieve economic development and employment growth for any country all over the world. According to data provided by the UK Department of Trade and Industry - DTI (2008), in 2007 99.1% of all companies registered within the UK were small sized (SBE’s) and provided 47.3% of the employment in the UK.

On the other hand, as a results of the rapid developments in computer science, IT, the Internet, mobile technologies and the media the way of conducting business today is changing not only dramatically but also in a very high speed given the chance for globalisation as a phenomenon and philosophy to become a reality forcing all types of organisations (regardless of its size) to think and act globally in most cases or to think globally and act locally in some other cases.

Although the phrase “think globally and act locally” was originated by Rene Dubos in 1972 as an advisor to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and was mainly related to the argument that global environmental problems can turn into action only by considering local surroundings (Eblen & Eblen, 1994) it is now commonly used in business practises to illustrate the importance of thinking to compete in a global market by focussing on local actions to achieve competitive advantages.

Moreover, although E-Marketing as a phenomenon and philosophy is still a relatively new concept, predominantly for small business enterprises in the light of the limited resources available for these enterprises, the concept is gaining much more interest from authors and practitioners than the last decade. From the author point of view, conducting E-marketing activities by small business enterprise can change the scope of SBE’s business all over the world. In this context, E-Marketing can generate a lot of opportunities for small business enterprises which is going to enable these enterprises to eliminate its weaknesses, fight its threats and optimise its strengths. Through that, E-Marketing will enable small business enterprises to compete in global bases which in turn will maximise its competitive advantages. Consequently, there is a need to have a much clearer and deep understanding about all the aspects related to E-Marketing problems as well as its opportunities for SBE’s and how E-Marketing can be used to carry out the marketing activities in a more effective and efficient way to enable small business enterprises to compete globally.

Depending on that, the chapter aims to explore the current aspects related to E-Marketing adoption and implementation by Egyptian small business enterprises as a tool for globalisation. The chapter starts with a discussion related to the current circumstances related to small business enterprises is Egypt, within this discussion a brief background about Egypt is provided to illustrate the different factors that might have an impact on the business environment for Egyptian small business enterprises. Based on this brief background a profile of the Egyptian small business enterprises and its geographical distribution, the different Egyptian institutions linked to small business enterprises in Egypt as well as the evolution of the internet in Egypt is illustrated. Afterwards, the chapter provide a complete report for the details of two exploratory studies conducted in the direction of gaining deep and reflective understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. This understanding will provide great benefits for entrepreneurs, policy makers, students, practitioners, authors, and educators though providing them with a clearer view and deep understanding for all the issues related to E-Marketing practises by Egyptian small business enterprises