Advanced e-commerce Support Framework to be applied in digital electronic commerce and digital services with an impact on the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index

Laburpena

In a changing digital economy, companies are faced with thechallenge of digital transformation. This process of change isreflected in the European Commission's Digital Economy and SocietyIndex, which monitors Europe's overall digital performance andtracks the progress of EU countries on digital competitiveness. Oneof the dimensions of this indicator is the degree of digitization ofSMEs e-commerce, an aspect of great relevance not only for itseconomic impact but also because it reflects the ability of companiesto adapt to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunitiesgenerated by this context. This study analyzes the relevance given toe-commerce among SMEs within the economic transformation plansfor 2025 of some Autonomous Communities of Spain, as well as inthe Digital Spain Plan 2025. This study shows a step forward in theeffort to accompany SMEs in the development of e-commerce, byenriching the leading digital model of Westerman et al. (2014) andits revised version by Bonnet & Westerman, (2021), in its DigitalPlatform pillar, with an advanced and holistic e-commerce supportframework (FASECO) for digital products and services. The resultssuggest that FASECO takes into account all the indicators that makeup digital electronic commerce, providing the concrete framework toincrease 19% of SMEs that sell online and 9% of the turnover ofelectronic commerce in 2020 in Spain, generating a specificapproach to e-commerce domain to lead in digital.This study opens the investigation to evolve the model consideringnew specific profiles of SMEs and serving as the basis for theconstruction of a skills bank in e-commerce.