The business analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers today released the results of their third annual survey of CEOs in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The survey found that CEOs often split along regional lines when opining on how Internet-enabled economies will change business.
For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that, when asked how e-business will affect the gap between developing and industrialized nations, CEOs in Latin America were more likely than CEOs from more-developed regions to say the gap will be narrowed.
Some 56 percent of European CEOs and 52 percent of Asian CEOs said e- business will serve to widen the economic gap between richer and poorer nations, while the majority (51 percent) of Latin American CEOs thought otherwise.
In North America, more CEOs (48 percent) predicted a widening of the gap than the reverse (38 percent). In all regions, eight to 10 percent of CEOs said e-business would have no impact on the "First World/Third World" gap.
In their report, Inside the Mind of the CEO: A Global Survey of Chief Executives, PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts said they suspect the Latin American CEOs "may be onto something," explaining: "Latin American CEOs are not theorizing about the Third World - it is at their doorstep."
Said PricewaterhouseCoopers CEO James Schiro: "If we can get the regulatory framework right, we believe the Web really can be a force to help narrow the gap between developed and developing countries, an economic boon to businesses everywhere. The challenge for global corporations working with governments and (non- governmental organizations) is to ensure that local and regional factors do not hamper this process. This will not be an easy task."
The report said that CEOs also had different opinions on how active their own governments are in shaping the Internet itself and boosting e-business.
Fifty-four percent of Asian CEOs and 48 percent of North American CEOs reported either "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of government activity, compared to just 31 percent in Europe and 20 percent in Latin America. North Americans were the most likely (18 percent) to report a great deal of government activity, while Asian CEOs were more reserved, with just 13 percent holding that view.
"Clearly Asian and North American governments are perceived as more active," Schiro said. "I think we will see some crucial multilateral negotiations developing as European and Latin American governments also seek to put their stamp on Internet development and policy."
PricewaterhouseCoopers said that the CEOs were mostly bullish about the future of their companies, with 27 percent describing themselves as "extremely optimistic" about prospects for growth and 64 percent "somewhat optimistic."
And the report said that CEOs who were optimistic about their companies' growth prospects were nearly twice as likely as the more-pessimistic CEOs to project e-business revenues in excess of 20 percent of all income five years from now.
In North America, Europe and Asia, business-to-business e-commerce was reported to be generating the most revenue among the majority of companies represented by the CEO survey. Only Latin American CEOs reported that business-to-consumer transactions were more likely to be the bringing in the most money.
PricewaterhouseCoopers said that 25 percent of the CEOs said their companies still do no business on the Web at all. When examined by region, only 13 percent of North American CEOs said their companies weren't doing online business, while that numbers grew for Europe (25 percent), Latin America (30 percent) and Asia (33 percent).
The report said Asian and North American CEOs were more likely (68 percent) to believe that non-traditional competitors would enter their industries via e-business than were European and Latin American CEOs (56 percent).
PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts said the difference is also reflected in the fact that European and Latin American CEOs seem less convinced that corporations must wholeheartedly adopt e-business or perish.
In addition, the report notes that North Americans have seen non- traditional competitors explode on the Internet, while, in Europe, "many of the most-aggressive applications of e-business are being launched by well-established companies, while start-ups are struggling."
Marketing and sales were seen as the business function most likely to be affected by e-business, with some 75 percent of CEOs singling out that area. Only eight percent of North American CEOs saw the finance function as being significantly affected, compared to 13 percent in Asian and Europe and 17 percent in Latin America.
The report said that CEOs all over the world are also increasing their own use of the Web, with 40 percent saying they had been online on more than 10 days in the preceding month for reasons other than e-mail. That share is up from the 25 percent reported in last year's survey. North American and Latin American CEOs were the most active, with 51 percent reporting using the Internet for purposes other than e-mail.
Nearly half of the CEOs also reported making purchases on the Internet, with North American CEOs leading the way at 58 percent. Asian CEOs were the least likely to have purchased anything online. Some 70 percent said they never have.
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