E-business Maturity and Information Technology In Portuguese SMEs

Ramiro Moreira Gonçalves1, Sónia Sousa Santos1 and Elisabete Paulo Morais2

1University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

2Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Bragança, Portugal

Copyright © 2010 Ramiro Moreira Gonçalves, Sónia Sousa Santos and Elisabete Paulo Morais. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License unported 3.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The latest technological advances made over recent times led to a profound market change, characterized by increased competition. In order to be competitive, organizations have been forced to adapt themselves to this new reality, seeking innovative solutions permitting them to achieve lower costs, greater productivity and differentiation from competition. This work focuses the e-business maturity stages of Portuguese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Our goal is to identify in which e-business maturity stage they are and explore the relationship between their e-business maturity and the technology they use.

 

Keywords: E-business Maturity, Information Technology, SMEs
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