Integration of E-Commerce by SMEs in the Manufacturing Sector: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

SMEs in the manufacturing industry are impacted by enormous changes in their business processes. E-commerce-related developments have reduced the importance of physical branches and moved towards more sophisticated and ecommerce-enabled supply chains for products and services. This paper analyzes the differences among SMEs in the manufacturing sector in four countries based on empirical data collected via a survey. Best practice cases of efficient ecommerce performance such as in Denmark or the US are identified in contrast to firms in France or Germany by using a data envelopment analysis (DEA). Leading SMEs in the sample have implemented a wide range of e-commerce applications, resulting in higher satisfaction rates.