A framework for performance measurement in the e-business environment

The advent of networked economy calls for new understanding of business, and it is evidenced by the visible trend of traditional businesses either migrating to e-business or expanding to embrace electronic commerce. Constant change in the environment means continually evolving strategies, new products, new processes and new technologies to adopt. E-business metrics are needed to measure performance with the firm's strategic focus in mind, and they must go beyond the Web metrics that are discussed in the usual electronic commerce context. The basic objective of this paper is to present a framework for developing performance measurement metrics in the e-business environment. The proposed framework, designed by incorporating the balanced scorecard methodology with existing taxonomies of e-business models and the theories behind them, is intended to enable firms to develop new metrics that are needed to implement e-business strategies and tactics. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.