A Knowledge Management Reading of Electronic Commerce: experiences in the Italian Clothing Industry

The paper aims to explore the application of a knowledge-based approach for the practical understanding of the potential of Electronic Commerce (Ecom). It firstly discusses the main elements that should (or may) characterise a knowledge-based view of Ecom, based on the analysis of recent literature on knowledge management. Then, the application of such elements is suggested for analysing Ecom in a specific context of application, the Italian clothing industry. The recent experience in that sector is examined, as well as the way the knowledge-based view proposed can be of use to understand the success and limitations of specific Ecom projects; this is done with particular reference to a specific case-study (Ecom projects of the Italian clothing firm ''Basic Net''). The potential and limitations of the approach adopted here is then discussed, as well as possible future research directions.