Dotcoms no threat say big businesses

Large European companies are blind to the competitive threat presented by dotcoms, according to a new survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Nearly half (47 per cent) of European companies believe that their greatest threat comes from traditional, mainstream competitors competing through traditional, or non ebusiness means.

The PwC findings were based on a survey of chief information officers in 100 Times top 1000 UK based companies, and parallel US research on the attitudes of ebusiness decision-makers in 104 Fortune 1000 companies.

European companies' attitudes towards dotcoms mirrored that of the US, with only 13 per cent identifying them as the greatest threat, but US companies are more alert to the impact of ebusiness on traditional competitors.

Only 27 per cent of European respondents, compared with 43 per cent in the US, expressed greatest concern about competition from peers who had developed ebusiness strategies.

Bill Bound, European ebusiness leader at PwC, said that Europe's largest organisations "realise the long-term potential of ebusiness," but are "not investing sufficiently to realise the potential".

"They must embrace a new business model centred on an offensive ebusiness strategy," he added.

Carol Dukes, chief executive of UK health website thinknatural.com, said that by ignoring dotcoms, big companies risk missing out on potential acquisitions and spotting management teams with whom they could co-operate. "An entrepreneurial attitude is often lacking in large companies. It is easier for smaller start-ups to be innovative," she said.

However, retail giant King Fisher appears to have realised the potential of the dotcom market and has entered into a partnership with thinknatural.com.

King Fisher, which owns high street chemist Superdrug, has invested £3m in the dotcom. Superdrug will provide distribution sites for thinknatural.com's mail order catalogues at the end of the month.

Such recognition appears to be rare, however. The survey reveals that over half of the European companies questioned felt that the market does not recognise or reward ebusiness activity and 72 per cent have no intention of creating internet capital.