INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT FOR INNOVATION IN AN E-COMMERCE COMPANY

Abstract

Throughout the last decade, e-commerce has become an area of growing importance for Information Systems and Administration researchers. Numerous studies analyzed the impact of e-commerce in organizations, most notably how it transformed the way businesses are done and how it spread information for the customers and among them. The Internet offers an appropriate e-commerce platform so that the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) can participate in global markets, due to the flexibility of the Internet and the nature of SME businesses. The Internet and its related technologies have more to offer to those companies than the established traditional communication and information processing environments. Given the importance of SME in many economies, the success in leveraging those companies’ businesses through the Internet is critical for the future of global economies. This paper aims to characterize the innovation management in a company selling flowers on the Internet. The following aspects were investigated: (i) internal environment of the company; (ii) the particularities of its business model based on e-commerce; and (iii) the processes and innovations arising from its international operation.