The rapid development of the e-economy globally has led to a situation where it has become not only interesting but even necessary to observe development trends and their numerical characteristics. Economic statistics, covering mainly European countries, are maintained by Eurostat. On one hand, this has the advantage of providing standardized and comparable material. The disadvantage, however, is the at least two-year gap between the act of research and the publication of results.
Statistical information regarding the assessment of specific phenomena (problems) in individual countries belonging to the European Union or those applying for membership generally refers to the year 1999.
However, in 2001, Eurostat conducted special pilot studies on the advancement of e-economy development in European countries. Although not all EU countries submitted their data, and the situation may have changed slightly during 2001/02, these are nevertheless the most recent comparable data, and the group of surveyed countries is relatively large. It included 13 European Union member states. The results concern enterprises with more than 10 employees. Enterprises were divided into two groups:
• small and medium-sized, where employment ranged from 10 to 245 people
• large, where employment was above 250 people.
• large, where employment was above 250 people.
Countries belonging to the European Union
Presented below are mainly the results of studies that may interest readers of Logistyka. In the case of considering the division into 2 groups of enterprises: small and medium-sized, and large, a significantly slower process of computerization is visible in the former group.
The use of computers in enterprises is already a mass phenomenon. Even small firms do not differ much in their assets from large ones. However, the use of Internet technology in small firms is relatively delayed.
The reasons for the significantly weaker involvement of small and medium-sized firms in Internet technology are largely explained by Fig. 2, where technical difficulties are actually highlighted.
IT technologies can be used at various stages of purchasing and sales processes. They can include marketing of offered products, order acceptance, their fulfillment, and settlement of payments. However, all these processes require the prior creation of conditions in which both parties to the transaction will feel safe, and this applies particularly to payment activities.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2002/6.