Abstract:

This paper presents a new metrics that aims to  quantitatively support the selection phase of a new e-business idea by performing an evaluation of its distinctivity in the actual e-business arena. The paper explains the reasons for the creation of a new parameter, called “E-distinctivity”, the identification of the metrics to evaluate it and presents the results of its evaluation on a set of successful e-business ventures and an interpretation of their meaning. This new parameter aims to integrate the traditional business analysis through the identification of new useful measures that are specific to the e-business field. In order to visualize the new “E-distinctivity” parameter and to execute all the needed evaluations a two dimensional radar has been created “ad hoc”. The radar is built on eight crucial characteristics divided into four principal zones representing the strategic aspects of the Editinctivity. This was made in order to represent the results towards a two dimensional drawing that will be simpler to understand. In order to assess the soundness of the identified parameter its evaluation on a reference group of well known e-business ventures has been performed. All the components of the enterprise reference group are examples of successful implementation of e-business ideas. At the end of the paper we finally discuss the results and underline the advantages of this methodology.