the efficacy of institutional discourse

During the mid to late 1990s, shaping diffusion of B2B e-commerce was a key priority for governments and business associations. Viewing e-commerce as the key to continuous economic growth and a vehicle for transformation to the digital economy, national action plans were formulated to accelerate the standard development and adoption of e-commerce. This chapter argues that the Danish EDI Action Plan from 1996 cemented structural problems for the ongoing adoption and diffusion of newer B2B technologies due to a discrepancy between goals and actions, imbalanced partner allocation in standard development and an overwhelming focus on the public sector despite ambitions to fuel the overall business adoption of B2B e-commerce