The Strategic Importance of E-Commerce in Modern Supply Chains

Abstract

Considering some aspects of the motor industry as an example, this paper outlines strategic opportunities for e-commerce-enabled supply chains and, hence, greatly improved responses to customers. The authors demonstrate that there will be resulting strategic advantage for firms that become enabled to take a further step of making changes to their much wider manufacturing process philosophies. The developed knowledge associated with these changes will not be easily copied by competitors, and as such, provides the basis for a sustainable competitive advantage for those firms that are able to lead the way with the enabling technology of e-commerce in supply chains. However, leadership and change management are identified as key issues requiring further investigation.