E-Business In E-Europe: Is Small E-Beautiful?

The lecture, E-business in e-Europe: Is small e-beautiful? Policy, research and practice, will draw together leading researchers in the e-commerce field and e-business practitioners to review the current position and explore the future for ordinary small firms and for the dotcom sector as a whole.

The event, at the British Embassy on the evening of April 8, will feature Dr Colin Gray from the Open University Business School (OUBS) presenting the latest research into the adoption and use of e-commerce and Mr Steven Laycock, Managing Director of CoAvant, who will give a practitioner’s point of view. Ms Iordana Eleftheriadou, from DG Enterprise – D4: E-business, ICT industries and services will present ‘Adapting e-business policies in a changing environment’.

“The use of internet-based technologies is providing almost limitless information flows within and between organisations. It offers many smaller companies enormous opportunities for changing the scale, the scope and the direction of their business. But after all the hype, the well-publicised dotcom failures, and a more sober evaluation of the next generation wireless technology it is now time for some more considered reflections about the attractions and take-up of e-business by Europe’s smaller firms,” says Dr Gray.

“This lecture will appeal to both theorists and practitioners, looking at current contexts of e-business, understanding and managing e-business applications, and highlighting future e-business research directions.”

Dr Gray, Head of the School’s Centre for Innovation, Knowledge and Enterprise, is leading a team of OUBS academics on a three-year research project into order fulfilment and delivery in e-businesses.

Please contact Michelle Romero on +32 2 644 33 73 or email M.Romero@open.ac.uk for booking information.

Editor’s Notes

The Open University Business School (OUBS) is Europe’s leading business school and the major provider of management development programmes delivered by supported distance learning. It is one of an elite group of UK and European business schools to hold both the prestigious EQUIS quality kitemark, awarded by the European Foundation for Management Development (efmd), and AMBA (the Association of MBAs) accreditation for its MBA. Currently the OUBS has 30,000 students based in the UK and more than 40 countries. Since its inception in 1983, more than 150,000 managers have studied an OUBS course at Certificate, Diploma or MBA level. The OUBS has also developed a significant research capability based in eight research units, and boasts one of the three largest Alumni Associations for MBA graduates outside the United States.The School is based at the Open University’s Milton Keynes headquarters in Buckinghamshire. Its website can be found at: oubs.open.ac.uk