Business types classification via e-commerce stage model in oil industry in Iran

TL;DR

This study classifies e-commerce development stages and features across different business types in Iran's oil industry, providing insights to guide future e-commerce strategies in this vital sector.

Contribution

It introduces a model for classifying e-commerce stages and features specific to Iranian oil industry companies, based on empirical data from industry representatives.

Findings

Identification of key e-commerce features per business type

Classification of companies into development stages

Most used e-commerce features in each stage

Abstract

Since the strategies and plans for e-commerce development are different for different industries and since the oil industry is one of the most important industries in Iran, the scope of this research is thus confined to that of the oil industry in Iran. The main aim of this study is to identify and classify the different features of e-commerce development stages and features based on the different business types present in companies in the oil industry in Iran. In order to achieve both of these objectives a questionnaire was developed and administered online. The questionnaire was distributed to forty representatives working in different companies. The collected data was classified and sorted and the priority e-commerce features was classified and displayed as triangles for each business type. Furthermore, the experts were asked to indicate the features which they implemented in their companies in order to know the most used features in each stage. The results of this study give an insight to the practice of e-commerce for Iranian oil companies and can be used to strategize future directions for the industry in terms of e- commerce.