Understanding the way businesses consider ICT challenges and issues: from strategy formulation to its concrete implementation

Based on more than twenty case studies of companies coming from four contrasted sectors in terms of ICT penetration, our speech questions the positioning firms adopt concerning the development of an e-business/e-commerce strategy and the influence specific factors may have in this context: the transactions attributes, the business strategy, the trust problematic and the legal framework surrounding the electronic commerce. Studied through a transdisciplinary perspective, these variables allow us to understand the “risk taking rate” companies are ready to bear in the development of an e-commerce strategy as well as to highlight and explain contrasting e-commerce approaches between companies, among others in terms of online offers extended and potential use of protection mechanisms.