large establishments in Denmark or France are leading in the field of EDI usage, but on the other 

hand, SMEs in these countries are far behind. Even US establishments do not use EDI or EFT as 

often as Danish or German establishments. Surprisingly, German SMEs take the overall leading 

position with regard to EFT and are close to the percentage of EDI usage reported by large firms 

in Germany. Therefore, the often quoted  electronic gap  between large establishments and 

SMEs cannot be verified via this empirical study.  

FIGURE 8  Use of EDI and Electronic Funds Transfer at the Country Level by Firm Size 

100%

G (S)

80%

G (L)

D K  (S)

D K  (L)

US (L)

60%

US (S)

TF

f E o

40%

e

F (L)

Us

F (S)

20%

0%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Use of EDI

Source: CRITO Global E Commerce Survey, 2002; unweighted sample.

Regarding the percentage of establishments doing online sales and online purchasing or 

procurement, German firms take only a middle position (Figure 9). Nevertheless, German SMEs 

seem to utilize online services more than large establishments. In comparison to the leading 

countries, large US establishments do more online sales and purchasing than US SMEs, while 

French firms report the lowest percentage of all countries.

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