Electronic supply chain practice within SMEs manufacturer in the UK.

The concepts of E-Business and Supply Chain Management (SCM) have been broadly investigated in the last 10 years. However, there have been limited insights into the integration of the two concepts - Electronic Supply Chain Management (ESCM). Also, there is limited information about the implementation of E-Business practices in the supply chain management of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Adopting an exploratory approach, this thesis investigated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and E-Business as practical and innovative approaches towards supply chain management. Following Tornatzky and Fleischer's (1990) 'Technology-Organisation-Environment' (TOE) theory, which has recently been used by Ifinedo (2011) in investigation of E-business in organisations, this research has attempted to provide a comprehensive view towards the adoption of ESCM. Having explored and extracted key factors influencing the adoption and implementation of ESCM from a literature review, a comprehensive ESCM model was developed. The model is focused towards understanding of the significance of various technological, organisational, environmental and strategic factors on successful adoption of E-Business technologies in supply chain management. Additionally, the advantages of the application of Information Technologies (IT) in supply chain management of SMEs, and possible obstacles are investigated in depth. Using a deductive approach, a questionnaire was designed to explore the research objectives. Consequently, 6 hypotheses were proposed and tested using data from 67 manufacturing SMEs in the UK. The findings of this study will enable comprehensive understanding of the concept of ESCM in SMEs, through exploring the integration of E-Business and supply chain management, and through an investigation of key elements of ESCM adoption. It is hoped that the developed model offers a better and stronger understanding of implementation of IT in SMEs, allowing managers of SMEs to evaluate the level of success and appropriateness of E-Business capabilities and IT strategies in their supply chains. Key words: Supply Chain Management (SCM), E-Business, E-Business capabilities, Electronic Supply Chain Management (ESCM), SMEs, Information and Communication Technology (ICT).