B2B e-commerce encompasses a wide range of technologies and there is no standard definition. For the purposes of this paper, we have defined B2B e-commerce as the
process of deploying information and communication technologies to support the entire value chain from suppliers through the firm to customers [52]. More traditionally, e-
commerce has involved the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) in which suppliersÕ and customersÕ computers are able to send formatted messages electronically. EDI has
been the basis for early supply chain management (SCM)
systems.