PurposeThe purpose of this research note is to investigate the implications of supply chain management of e‐business for the macroeconomic phenomenon of business cycles.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides a list of propositions, which form the broad basis of an empirical research agenda, to explore and investigate the mechanisms through which supply chain innovations can influence business cycle.FindingsEconomic research literature has pointed out that there are linkages between inventory investment and business cycle fluctuation. Given that the e‐business supply chain management drastically alters inventory investment across a range of industries, it is likely to affect the behaviour of economic fluctuation.Originality/valueThis research has the potential to contribute to a better‐informed formulation of economic policies at national and global level.

Many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been under pressures from large firms to implement Business-to-Business e-commerce (B2B e-commerce) information systems. However, these SMEs have faced various challenges to do so in the supply chain. This chapter explains the role of Taiwanese government in supporting SMEs in implementing e-commerce by analysing the interactions of government teams with current projects, and challenges of Taiwanese SMEs. Discussions and analyses focus on the government help in setting up infrastructure, B2B e-commerce implementation, and interfirm interactions among SMEs and larger firms. The Taiwanese government has been promoting its global logistic strategy for economic development which stresses supply chain integration by bridging information flows among overseas enterprises, domestic large firms, and local SMEs. Government projects related to this strategy are intended to anchor SMEs’ growing needs in linking B2B e-commerce with large firms. Our analyses and proposal dwell on how government can further bridge the gaps between the intrinsic barriers of SMEs and the interactions with larger firms in B2B e-commerce implementation.

This case study presents the implementation of information systems in a context of global enterprise restructuring. Based on the background of the second organisational restructuring of Acer Group, it evidences the combinations of corporate strategy and information technology (IT) practices and shows how this enterprise shifts and reallocates its resources in order to concentrate on the most profitable segments of the entire supply chain. Drawing upon IT adoption and supply chain management (SCM) literature, we discuss the issues of organisation restructure affecting the information systems dispatching along the supply chain from by theoretical and practical lens. Particularly, this article provides an aspect looking into the installing of global logistics management (GLM) information systems, which requires the integration of existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in different sites. It offers a direction to academics and practitioners to rethink the necessary elements required to enact adoption plans of information systems in a digitally enabled global business.

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