Electronic Business Maturity in Portuguese SME and Large Enterprises

Elisabete Paulo Morais1, Sónia Sousa Santos2 and Ramiro Moreira Gonçalves2

1Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Mirandela, Portugal

2University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

Copyright © 2011 Elisabete Paulo Morais, Sónia Sousa Santos, and Ramiro Moreira Gonçalves.. 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

Since the introduction of computer technology into organizations in the 1960s, there have been numerous attempts to develop models of Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) maturity. The maturity models are based on the premise that the planning process, development or adoption, use and management of IS/IT organizations, evolves through a learning process that can move through stages of maturity. If these stages (and their associated features) can be identified, could then be used to develop a plan for the IS and provide guidelines for action for the orderly progression through several stages from the current culture of the organization.  This work focuses the e-business maturity stages of Portuguese SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and large enterprises. Our goal is to identify in which e-business maturity stage they are and explore the relationship between their e-business maturity and the associated constrains to e-business evolution (previously identified in an exploratory study).

Keywords: e-business; maturity models; stages of growth; constraints
Shares