Abstract
The successful adoption of e-business practices for small and medium sized enterprises involves creating a business environment for an innovation-based economy. The necessary environment does not yet exist in investment-based economies, such as Canada, that depend on natural resource wealth. In Canada, excellence in providing a business environment for the knowledge-based economy is being created in silos amidst a mix of formal and informal efforts at various levels of government. This paper describes university support for CLEAR, an acronym for Coordinated Learning for E-Business Adoption, Research, and Resources, which is a strategy designed to accelerate e-business adoption in SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) in Atlantic Canada. Addressing problems such as isolated silos of excellence, poor communications, and non-existent knowledge sharing, mentoring, delivery, and measuring mechanisms for e-business, CLEAR is anchored on a network of strong research collaboration with universities, private and public sector associations, private sector firms, private and public sector institutions and agencies for innovation and value creation. What is novel about CLEAR is that the management of the CLEAR network activities is to be hosted in university business schools versus government agencies, thereby leveraging the research capacities and business expertise in the region. The expected value lies in the aggregation and alignment, of resources, capacities, and capabilities in e-business with the needs of the SME firms.
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Jutla, D., Weatherbee, T. (2003). Supporting Clear: A Strategy for Small and Medium Size Enterprise Adoption of E-Business Practices in Atlantic Canada. In: Andersen, K.V., Elliot, S., Swatman, P., Trauth, E., Bjørn-Andersen, N. (eds) Seeking Success in E-Business. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 123. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35692-1_10
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