Economic impact of e-business

This paper presents the results of a survey on the economic effectiveness of ICT usage in 220 Belgian firms in four different sectors (banking, transport, printing, machinery). The study reveals several significant findings. Some run counter to many assumptions about the costs and benefits of ICT. Somewhat predictably, significant effects were detected on product innovation. However, counter to expectations, it was found that in the majority of cases process innovation contributes little to the reduction of business process costs and appears even to increase them. Also, the use of ICT to change the modalities of commercial relations (i.e. relational innovation) was found to yield the most positive outcomes in terms of sustaining revenue.