E Business

Information & Management 40 (2003) 581–590

E-business development for competitive advantages: a case study

Dien D. Phan*

Department of Business Computer Information Systems, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN 56301, USA Received 5 July 2001; received in revised form 4 March 2002; accepted 20 July 2002

Abstract Electronic business (e-business) today plays a major role in the world’s economy. Forester Research estimated that, by 2003, the value of e-commerce of US and Europe will reach US$ 3 trillion. As the e-marketplace becomes more lucrative, it attracts new entrants and created turmoil in the market. There have been many spectacular successes and many failures. This paper presents a study of e-business competitive advantage strategies using the success at Intel. After the initial deployment of its e-business pilot system in July 1998, Intel ramped US$ 1 billion sales on e-business each month for the rest of the year. Intel became the fifth most profitable company in the US in the year 2000, up from the rank of eighth in 1999. Despite the rapid decline in stock values of many Internet related companies and the recession, Intel is still successful. By the end of 2001, Intel was the seventh largest market capitalization company in the US. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: E-business; E-commerce; B2B; Supply chain; Value chain; Competitive advantage; Strategy; Extranet

1. Introduction E-business has received much attention from entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and industry observers recently. As information technologies (IT) develop, novel ways of business process redesign (BPR) emerged, creating turmoil in the industry. Organizations today frequently integrate Internet technology to redesign processes in ways that strengthen their competitive advantages. Success breeds imitation and invites more entries. The rapid expansion of e-commerce values in the past few years convinced many people that a new economy has emerged....