e-Business digital divide smaller than expected, shows survey
e-Business W@tch, a monitoring organisation funded by the European Commission, is claiming that businesses in the acceding countries are embracing new electronic business technologies rapidly, resulting in a smaller e-business digital divide than expected. Slovenia and Estonia in particular are identified as 'e-leaders', closely followed by the Czech Republic. Indeed, Estonia joins the likes of Germany, France and the UK in terms of the proportion of companies with broadband access. An overall picture of the situation in 10,000 European companies from 26 countries was gained through interviews with decision-makers from enterprises and targeted questionnaires. 'We have been surprised that the situation amongst businesses differs significantly from that of households, where an important digital divide has been reported,' said Reinhard Büscher from the European Commission's Enterprise DG, responding to the survey results. The results suggest that the size of a company and its field of activity are the factors influencing e-business take-up, rather than the region in which it is based. The Commission intends to use these results in order to shape future enterprise polices. The first step will be to analyse how e-business can be implemented in order to raise productivity and competitiveness. The Commission will then take a more sectoral approach to the use of new technologies: 'Electronic business technologies are much more complex than e-commerce and we need to understand the sectoral impact of e-business and how it is affecting the different industries in Europe,' says Mr Büscher.
Kraje
Czechia, Estonia, Slovenia