Understanding online channel expansion in an SME context: A business model perspective

The purpose of the paper is to study, from a business model perspective, value creating activities taken by SMEs when making a transition to an online multichannel context by adopting and adding e-commerce and/or m-commerce. 16 SMEs in Sweden are studied using a basic qualitative research approach and an e-transit business model configuration. Main results of the study are the existence of primary and secondary transition activities and the existence of a discrepancy between actions taken and their perceived degree of importance. One main conclusion is that the combination of value creating activities an SME should focus on during different stages of an online channel expansion differ depending on transition category and will change over time.