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Volume 10 Issue 1 JUNE 2007
Searching for e-Business Performance Measurement Systems
David Barnes1 and Matthew Hinton2
1 School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
2 Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK
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Organisations of all kinds continue to expand their involvement in e-business. This requires considerable financial investment in IT, in processes and in people. It might be expected that there would be a concern to ensure that performance measurement systems are capable of justifying these investments, and of evaluating their worth once implemented. The paper describes research aimed at determining the exact nature of such e-business performance measurement systems and the benefits that accrue from their use. The research uses a case study methodology to report the performance measurement practices of twelve potentially exemplar organisations that have made efforts to develop distinctive performance metrics for e-business. Suitable organizations were sought from two sources. Firstly, an earlier survey undertaken by the authors had identified a number of respondents who claimed that their organisations were operating e-performance measurement systems. Secondly, the winners of 2005 UK national e-Commerce Awards, were contacted. (Winners must demonstrate they have achieved tangible gains from their use of Internet ICTs.) Qualitative data was collected from interviews with a key informant from each organisation. The interviews, conducted in 2005, were semi-structured based on a standard set of questions. Additional data came from company documents. The cases revealed a variety of approaches to e-business performance measurement, with no common framework apparent. Whilst there is considerable disparity in the level of success achieved in developing suitable measures, there is evidence of a common concern to link e-business performance to organisational objectives. However, there is a general reluctance to embark on major overhauls of existing performance measurement systems. The paper discusses the possible reasons for this and the implications for future developments in e-business performance measurement practices.
Keywords:
e-business, performance measurement systems, IT evaluation
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