The development of e-business in Austria

During the last 5 years, nearly all economic sectors have come in touch with the internet and with the vast business opportunities being offered by different aspects of e- and m-business. In 1998, our research group carried out an initial survey targeting the Austrian top-500 companies. We wanted to know whether or not these companies had already accepted the e-business challenge or if they were still losing ground compared to their European competitors. The survey showed quite clearly that the majority of the Austrian top-500 companies had not identified the challenge and that more than two-thirds of the companies neither did nor were planning to do e-business in any way. The research project also identified a lack in necessary IT infrastructure as a solid basis for intranet/internet e-business solutions. To gain more detailed insight about the evolution of e-business in Austria, we continued this research project over the following years. This paper describes the development of e- and m-business in Austria during the last 4 years. The data have been collected in four quantitative surveys. Over the years, the findings show that the Austrian companies have prepared their IT and telecommunications infrastructure but are still lacking an overall e- and m-business strategy.