E-Health Business Models Prototyping by Incremental Design

Internet and IT (Information technologies) among other innovative drivers push companies to update their business models, and design stands out as an emergent issue strongly connected with innovation, which, in turn, is the main resource of the modern economy. One way to achieve innovation is through artifacts that allow the development of successful information systems in organizations. Moreover, the field of health appears as a sector with many opportunities to improve services through IT and design. Therefore, e-health comes out as one of the elements that should eventually help in the evolution of business models in health systems. In this chapter, the authors present a design method of IT artifacts for e-health adapted from the method proposed by Pahl and Beitz (1995). The correctness of the design method adopted is a significant issue to generate new business models successfully or to adapt the existing ones in health systems.

Open Innovation in SMEs

Successful innovation is a key to business growth. In the realm of technological development, innovation processes have been transformed into various forms, like open innovation, crowdsourcing innovation, or collaborative innovation. This research would like to focus on open innovation processes to reach out to the common stakeholders in the entrepreneurship system through small and medium enterprises. It has been observed that to provide innovative services or products to the outer periphery of the customer chain, SMEs play an important role. Hence, focusing innovation for SMEs would lead to a newer dimension of innovation research for better business and economic growth. It could be applied to both ways in terms of value gain to the participants. This applies to all sorts of entrepreneurships, though often corporate business houses seem to be the most beneficiaries of innovation researches. This research will emphasize open innovation for SMEs at the outset by focusing transformation of innovation leading to a networked paradigm in spite of being in closed periphery, and try to provide some overview on innovation strategies, including various challenges.

Issues Influencing Electronic Commerce Activities of SMEs

This study aims to investigate the issues of electronic commerce activities in small and medium sized enterprises as a consequence of organizational change initiated by the adoption of information technologies. The fundamental issues influencing electronic commerce practices of SMEs are their insufficiency of cognitive learning and organizational strategy, financial and distribution problems specific to SMEs, limitations of supply chain management, reluctance of organizational culture for electronic change, problems of information technologies usage, insufficiency of human resource, resistance of top management to organizational change as required by the adoption of information technologies, integration problems of new technologies with the existing systems, lack of confidence on the side of customers towards electronic commerce. A study of the Turkish Automotive Supplier Industry has revealed that electronic commerce has been adopted and its benefits are accepted. However, the industry has to overcome some technical and managerial difficulties to implement it more efficiently and effectively.

Constrains Associated to E-Business Evolution

Technological advance of the last decades created an atmosphere in which the organizations are forced to look actively for new options for the cost reduction, in addition to, simultaneously, seeking to compete more effectively in their markets. This context requires focused, swift, more flexible and more competitive organizations which are forced, many times, to implement radical changes in the way they conduct business, employ people and use technology. Despite the recognition and the attention given to electronic business (or e-business) over the last years, this type of business hasn’t yet achieved a desirable maturity stage. This problem, current and stated over the last years, demands research efforts so that a solution can be found to solve it. In this chapter, the authors explore a range of constraints which are suggested by the literature to influence e-business evolution, so that organizations could be better equipped in anticipating any difficulties while in progress through their e-business initiatives.

An Integrative Framework on the Psychological Variables Explaining the Consumers’ Use of E-Commerce-Based Recommendation Systems

A conceptual model to understand the consumer’s adoption and use of certain website recommendation system is presented; the research problem is tackled from a psychological perspective. The authors base on, adapt and integrate classical theories of consumer behavior with particular theories developed in the framework of computer-mediated environments. The model proposed, along with the relations analyzed among the variables considered (a total of 16 research propositions), should be of help for recommendation systems designer and website managers, in order to work with systems more aware of the psychological process experienced by consumers when interacting with them.

A Unified View of Enablers, Barriers, and Readiness of Small to Medium Enterprises for E-Business Adoption

SMEs have been looking at expanding their market share by extending beyond their geographical boundaries and this is where electronic business has come to the forefront. The path to e-business adoption is ridden with barriers and understanding these along with the benefits it offers to SMEs is important. This chapter has reviewed the existing literature of barriers and benefits of e-business adoption by SMEs to identify the various enablers that can facilitate adoption. The chapter also provides an insight into e-readiness and analyses six existing tools that are used globally to measure e-readiness. Based on a comprehensive analysis, an holistic framework (Motivation Application Measurement Support (MAMS) e-readiness assessment framework) has been proposed. The framework can be utilized as a reference to assess, design and implement a supplementary strategic approach for the assessment of e-business readiness of SMEs. Further empirical research to test, amend and improve the MAMS framework can be undertaken in the future.

SME as a Service

The market evolves at an increasingly faster pace. Enterprises, and in particular SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), besides having to stay agile, competitive and aware of competition, must give customers what they need (customized products or services) when they need it. The classical business paradigm (carefully studying what customers have bought in the past to predict what they will buy in the near future and derive a strategy from it) is not agile and adequate enough anymore. This chapter discusses a customer-centric business paradigm with enough agility to follow the patterns of customers’ needs and the ability to customize specific needs as a variant of some pattern, turning the very low volume customer market into a viable business opportunity. The customization and corresponding production result from concrete user requests and not anticipation of demand. We call it EaaS (Enterprise as a Service) and is particularly adequate to SMEs.

Reflecting on New Businesses Models for SMEs Through Technological Application

As modern economies faces its growth challenges, small and medium enterprises are potential agents to become strategic competitive, especially when it can be supported by information technology. A scenario composed by rapid changes in the economies, introduction of new communication and information technology and emergence of new markets forms the study background, which was proposed to analyze new business models for SMEs based on e-business concepts and how these resources, applied under strategic thinking, are increasing the SMEs’ competitiveness. A case study of Brazilian e-business based SMEs is conducted, in order to understand IT application in this evolving context, examining five successful cases.

Retail 2.0

Retail was born in 1879 with the first Five & Dime Stores. 130 years after, we still live in the era of Retail 1.5, this means, no real Quantum Leap was made in Customer Experience. However, we strongly believe that, starting half of the first decade of the 21st Century, a new Retail Era began. This change is due to the fact that, not only Classic Retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour started to look to the Persona, instead of a Person among Persons, but also eCommerce Retailers, such as Amazon or eBay showed that eCommerce Retail it’s more than a Start-Up, which is something that we can observe by the continued and sustained Double Digit Revenue growths year after year. Social Retail hit the mainstream, when Time Magazine awarded Social Shopping Experience as one of the Best Inventions of 2007. The objective of the present study is to understand what have been done in the field of New Customer Experiences since the beginning of the Classic Retailers, and try to devise what will be the strategic implications for the future, arising from the changes foreseen in the field of retail business. The authors will emphasize the emerging new Trends, and try to foresee what in Social Retail and Online / Shop Customer Experience could be the mainstream for the next decade.

21st Century Learning Opportunities for SME Success

This chapter informs SME (small and medium enterprise) owners, developers, consultants, and academics with the reasons, means, and possibilities afforded by 21st century technology in helping SMEs to improve their operational efficiencies and discover more effective marketing strategies for their products and services. With the rapid development and broad-based integration of web-based technologies across domains of communication, marketing, e-Commerce, and training, SMEs can benefit greatly by using these inexpensive tools to their advantage. SMEs typically underutilize opportunities to enhance their efficiencies by using more complex e-Business systems, and in so doing under develop the talents of their workforce for innovation and success. This underutilization is not just because of ignorance of technological capabilities, but also from a lack of exposure to leadership and HR development training. Knowing the need to learn must be a strong foundation before technological development can ensue. This chapter provides a synthesis of research and literature across several related, but seldomly connected fields - including, organizational theory, leadership, adult development and learning, 21st century learning, distance learning and human resource management. In developing this chapter, the authors are attempting to communicate the need for SMEs to both develop leadership and technological program developments to implement the changes needed to compete in a marketplace that reflects rapid change and imperfect information.