The Impact of E-business on Market Structure the Case of the Automotive Industry

The paper analyses the adoption path of e-business technologies in the automotive industry. It has been showed that there is a profound and constantly increasing discrepancy in the diffusion of IT with respect to firm size. Large firms embarked on new technologies earlier and more intensive than SME’s (small and medium-sized enterprises). The observations of IT diffusion were confronted with the dynamics of market structure development of the automobile industry. In the analysed period both the discrepancy in IT usage and market share of large firms continued to increase. Thus, there arises a question of whether increasing technological leadership of large firms does not accelerate restructuring the economic activity away from small enterprises towards large firms. Unfortunately, due to database shortcomings, no rigorous empirical test could be carried out and the raised question must remain unanswered until an arrival of more accurate data.