E-entrepreneurship and economic development : the case of EU countries

The aim of our paper is to identify how entrepreneurs from European Union (EU) countries use information and communications technologies (ICTs) in their business activities. We also propose to identify if there are differences in the use of ICTs by entrepreneurs, according to level of economic development of EU countries. In order to achieve these goals, we analyse a sample of EU countries, by including them into two groups, according to the stage of their economic development. For analysing the data, we use several methods (the logical-constructive method, comparative methods and benchmarking). The benchmarking method helps us to estimate indicators at country level and to compare them between countries. Our results indicate that e-entrepreneurship in developed countries is more advanced compared to developing countries. There are also significant differences regarding the use of informational technologies between types of firms by their size. Small enterprises use in a lower proportion ICTs in their activity compared with large firms. Through the content of our research, we emphasize that in order to adapt to the rapid changing environment and also to the changes in the consumer's behaviour the enterprises should focus on introducing the ICTs in their activity to face the competition. Also, government policies should pay more attention to supporting development of information technology infrastructure.