The internet as a small business e-commerce ecosystem

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse how the ecosystem concept can be applied to small businesses and how the Internet and e-commerce can help SMEs harness the required resources to enhance their competitive performance in the marketplace. The chapter will investigate the wide variety of e-commerce applications that are available to small businesses to help address the issue of limited resources. It will provide an ecosystem map illustrating how each functional area of a small business can utilise Internet e-commerce applications to enhance their resource base. The chapter also explores the opportunities and threats that the e-commerce ecosystem model poses for small, medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is based upon empirical research consisting of three focus group interviews undertaken with small and medium-sized retail service firms located in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire regions of the United Kingdom in January–February 2014.