Abstract
The growing diffusion of electronic commerce (EC) and the increasing focus on supply chains could lead companies of any size to face both economic and organizational changes. Thus, EC is becoming a way to redefine the supply chain to achieve a higher level of integration with business partners: this requires the introduction of new business models. Moreover, the business drivers for implementing supply chain solutions turn out to be quite different for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) than for larger companies: while the existing literature mainly focuses on the experiences of large companies, the research on EC driven supply chain applications within SMEs is still relatively new. Through the description of SME case studies, this paper outlines three business models each characterized by a different way of establishing the relationships as well as the roles business partners.