Towards a framework for operations management in e‐commerce

This paper identifies areas of distinctive competence in the operations function of e‐commerce companies. Exploratory case studies were conducted in five e‐commerce companies in Argentina. The distinctive competencies that emerged were divided into three sets referring to upstream, downstream, and structural areas and integrated into a framework of the general e‐commerce process. The findings suggest that operations‐based competitiveness in e‐commerce requires the development of a series of distinctive competencies, that those competencies are often related and mutually supportive, and that there is usually a linkage between distinctive competencies in e‐commerce operations and the business strategy.