The role of Electronic Commerce for Portuguese SMEs in the Global Marketplace

• Type: Chapter or Part of a Book
• Date: 1998

Authors

Aires Silva (Author) Other; João Falcão e Cunha (Author) FEUP

Book

Title: Technologies for the Information Society: Developments and Opportunities

Pages: 104-109

Other information

Abstract (EN): Portuguese SMEs that used to be, and still are, much smaller than the average in the European Union, are positioned in a peripheral region of the economic area, having had traditionally slow communication links with the more developed regions. However, communication costs are decreasing, together with an increasing availability of Internet access. We describe how such situation is challenging SMEs, offering them new opportunities, which must be understood and reacted upon, in order to survive in a global competition environment. Nowadays physical distance is no longer usually a complex business barrier, and therefore the difficulties that still exist to the deployment of Electronic Commerce are about the same all over the European Union. The small computer systems with their user friendly interfaces, brought the Internet to be widely used and also allowed the survival of the very small SMEs. An overview of the current situation and future perspectives of Portuguese SMEs adoption of electronic commerce among the European Union is also provided.

Language: Portuguese

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6