The integration of e-business into mature and established companies : a business model approach

The purpose ofthis dissertation is to explore and analyse the implications of the integration of e-business into mature and established companies and how e-business can contribute to business development. Changes in general and e-business in particular have the potential to penetrate different areas of a company and thus we ought to analyse how e-business is integrated into the entire company (both strategically and operationally) if we aim to understand how this happens. By using a holistic business model framework it is argued that we get a more complete picture and understanding of the integrating e-business.The study is based on three case studies of mature and established, so-called bricks-and-mortar, companies that use e-business in various ways and to various extents.Traditionally e-bus iness has primarily been used for cost reduction purposes especially regarding transaction costs. These relatively simple solutions, low-hanging fruits, have all but been exhausted and thus companies turn their attention to more complex and value-adding solutions and ideas. As e-business becomes more complex it also becomes more integrated into the companies and the day-to-day activities. This also demands more interaction and integration with business processes as well as external actors such as customers. E-business has the potential to intluence companies in all dimensions of the business model framework forwarded here; in the Operative platforms, in the Offering. and regarding the Market positions. Furthermore. it is argued that much of companies' contemporary business development has a clear e-business ingredient.