An E-Readiness Assesment Framework and Two Field Studies

Although e-business is increasingly important to companies competing in global markets, rushed and ineffective implementation of e-business in companies results in valuable resources being wasted without achieving significant tangible benefits. To minimize risks and maximize potential benefits in e-business implementation, a company needs to know to what degree it is ready for ebusiness and in what aspects it needs to improve itself before implementing e-business. Although a few e-readiness assessment models are used in practice, relatively little is published in academic research journals on this issue. Further, the current practical e-readiness assessment models are largely based on the experience of e-business implementation in developed countries. Given the key differences between developed and developing countries, ebusiness implementation in developing countries could be different from that in developed countries. This paper proposes an e-readiness assessment framework from the perspective of developing countries. The assessment framework contains five hierarchical levels, including 67 specific assessment indicators. Two field studies were conducted to illustrate and test the usability of the proposed e-readiness assessment framework in 21 retail companies of China.