The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the impacts of e-business on the supply chain within small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s). Studies have shown that e-business has great impact on the supply chain, recent developments in current markets have shown small to medium sized enterprises struggling to compete with online counterparts. Currently, e-business is continuously growing, creating the age of customer impatience and intimidating British highstreets. The adoption of technology is making e-business more accessible but also growing the online competition. There is a lack of up-to-date literature on the matter despite constant advances and growth to e-business.
A qualitative study was conducted with eight business owners, managers and supervisors whom have knowledge of their company’s supply chain to examine the impacts e-business is having. The data collected was then thematically analysed using relevant computer software to create grouped themes and sub-themes which collectively answer the research aim.
A key finding from the study was the common adoption of multi-channel strategies to the supply chain to support retail outlets and to remain competitive. However, more so interesting was the finding that these multi-channel strategies will be reverted back to single channel supply chains in response to e-business factoring towards the decline in high-street success.
Limitations to this study included the sample size. However, as the interviews were in-depth, plentiful data was obtained despite the sample size limitation. Furthermore, the word constraints meant the findings concluded from the obtained data had to be selective to ensure the word constraint was not exceeded.
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