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Environmental Drivers of E-Business Strategies Among SMEs Harrison, D., Mykytyn, P.P., & Riemenschneider, C.K. (1997). Executive decisions about adoption of information technology in small businesses: Theory and empirical tests. Information Systems Research, 8(2), 171-195. Iacovou, C.L., Benbasat, I., & Dexter, A.S. (1995). Electronic data interchange and small organiza-tions: Adoption and impact of technology. MIS Quarterly, 19(4), 465-486. Lal, K. (1999). Determinants of the adoption of information technology: A case study of electri-FDODQGHOHFWURQLFJRRGVPDQXIDFWXULQJ¿UPVLQ India. Research Policy, 28, 667-680. Lee, J., Runge, J., & Baek, S. (2001). Adoption of Internet technologies in small business. In Pro-FHHGLQJVRI3DFL¿F$VLD&RQIHUHQFHRQ,QIRUPD-tion Systems (PACIS 2001), Seoul, Korea. Leonard-Barton, D. (1992). Core rigidities and core competencies. Strategic Management Jour-nal, 13, 111-125. Long, J.S. (1997). Regression models for cat-egorical and limited dependent variables. 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CEO characteristics, organizational characteristics and information technology adoption in small businesses. Omega, International Journal of Management Science, 23, 429-442 194 Environmental Drivers of E-Business Strategies Among SMEs Zhu K., Kremer, K., & Xu S. (2003). Electronic EXVLQHVVDGRSWLRQE\(XURSHDQ¿UPV$FURVV country assessment of the facilitators and inhibi-tors. European Journal of Information System, 12, 251-268. KEY TERMS E-Business: An umbrella term referring to a wide variety of Internet-based management solu-tions, like a Web site, an e-commerce platform, or a customer relationship management system. Web site: An organization’s presence or an individual’s presence on the World Wide Web. It is a structured collection of multimedia pages linked to each other and very often to pages on other Web sites (hyperlinks). A Web site is hosted on a server computer and, to qualify as a Web site, the server must be available on the Internet 24 hours a day. E-Commerce: According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), an e-commerce strategy incorporates various elements of the marketing mix to drive users to a Web site for the purpose of purchasing a product or service. E-Procurement: A structured information system adopted by some organizations for making business-to-business purchases over the Inter- tions based on the customer information stored in the system. Telework: According to the European Com-mission, telework occurs when information and communications technologies (ICTs) are applied to enable work to be done at a distance from the place where the work results are needed or where the work would conventionally have been done. Institutional Pressures: According to the Institutional Theory, institutions work as forces upon individuals and organizations by creating social pressures and restrictions, setting bound-aries for what is accepted and what is not. Such DQLQÀXHQFHFDQEHLQWKHIRUPRIQRUPDWLYH coercive, and mimetic pressures (Davidsson, Hunter, & Klofsten, 2006). Normative pressures consist of social pressures on organizations and its members to conform to certain norms. Co-ercive pressures are often thought of as formal institutions of regulations or laws but can also be informal expectations on organizations (e.g., technical standards imposed by someone exerting power over another actor, as in a parent-subsid-iary relationship). Mimetic pressures represent demands towards imitation of other organizations to cope with uncertainty. ENDNOTES net. Such a system can connect companies and their business processes directly with suppliers while managing all interactions between them. E-procurement is also referred to as supplier exchange. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System: a system combining database and computer technology with customer service to manage at best the relationships with clients. Automated CRM processes are often used to generate automatic personalized marketing ac- 1 A leading position for a SME, here, may DOVRUHIHUWRDVSHFL¿FVHJPHQWRUQLFKHRI the market. 2 The likelihood ratio test on the entire model LVKLJKO\VLJQL¿FDQWWKHLQGHSHQGHQWYDUL-DEOHVWRJHWKHUGRKDYHDVLJQL¿FDQWHIIHFW on the e-business intensity among SME. With regard to the Nagelkerke pseudo R-square measure, it indicates a satisfactory level above the threshold value of 0.10. Also, the model is able to correctly classify 49.5% 195 Environmental Drivers of E-Business Strategies Among SMEs of the cases. This is an increase of 13.5% compared to its baseline: also in this case, a lift above 10% is largely considered as satisfactory. This work was previously published in Handbook of Research on Global Diffusion of Broadband Data Transmission, edited by Y. Dwivedi, A. Papazafeiropoulou, & J. Choudrie, pp. 493-503, copyright 2008 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global). 196 197 Chapter 1.14 The Evolving Web Presence of SMEs: An Empirical Approach to E-Business Fernando Alonso Mendo Brunel University, UK Guy Fitzgerald Brunel University, UK ABSTRACT This chapter reviews current approaches to the study of the progression of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their use of Internet technologies. It is argued that a research frame-work that combines three different dimensions of organisational change (process, content, and drivers) offers an alternative approach to e-com-merce stage models in understanding the evolu-tion of SMEs Web sites over time. Furthermore, a study of 192 Web sites and their evolution over ten moths is described to demonstrate the relevance and applicability of the dimensions of the framework. The study describes the different approaches (monitoring, content analysis, and telephone interviews) and the characteristics of changes on these Web sites. The proposed framework is argued to be useful to academics, providing multiple perspectives enabling more insightful study of SMEs e-business adoption and progression, and avoiding breakdown, a priori theory, for example, stage models. The framework is also argued to be useful for SME managers seeking to make the most of their limited resources in this context. INTRODUCTION The majority of SMEs in the UK have already established a Web presence (DTI, 2003). Firms have numerous reasons for establishing a Web SUHVHQFHDQGWKHVHUHDVRQVLQÀXHQFHWKHGHVLJQ Copyright © 2009, IGI Global, distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. The Evolving Web Presence of SMEs and implementation of their Web sites. Carrying out online sales and other business transactions is seldom the main reason for establishing a site, which can be used to achieve a variety of purposes (McNaughton, 2001). For example, 60(VDUH¿QGLQJDSUHVHQFHRQWKH:HEWREH important for enhancing their corporate image, increasing brand/product awareness, providing customer service, discovering new business op-portunities, and information gathering (Chau, 2003; Gribbins & King, 2004; Levy & Powell, 2003).&RPPHUFLDO:HEVLWHVLQÀXHQFHSRWHQWLDO FXVWRPHUV¶LPSUHVVLRQVRI¿UPV¶OHJLWLPDF\LQ-novation and caring (Winter, Saunders, & Hart, 2003). Thus, customers may have different views RID¿UPGHSHQGLQJRQWKH:HEIHDWXUHVRUFRQWHQW available (e.g., design, business policies, security) that might determine whether a customer visits the site again or makes a transaction (Teo & Pian, 2004). Given the growing importance of Web sites in relations between companies and consumers, businesses are ever more aware of the need to improve their offerings. Therefore, a Web site is likely to be a dynamic entity, demanding continual maintenance, investments, skill acquisition, and management commitment. The evolution of Web sites is not yet clearly understood and there is little research evidence to explain why and how organisations continually evolve their Web presence. For example, it has been suggested that SMEs adoption of Internet technologies follows a sequence of stages. These stage models imply that businesses move in broad phases from basic use of the Internet (as an e-mail or marketing tool) to more sophisticated usage that redesigns business processes and integrates business systems (e.g., Daniel, Wilson, & Myers, 2002; Rao, Metts, & Mora Monge, 2003). In recent years, governmental programs of the UK, European Union and other governments KDYHXVHGWKHVHNLQGRI³RQHVL]H¿WVDOO´VWDJH models to encourage SME e-business adoption (e.g., DTI, 2002; Industry Canada, 1999; NOEI, 2000; SIBIS and European Communities, 2003). However, despite the efforts of governments and the various support programs, the number of SMEs achieving advanced stages of e-commerce is very low and lags behind larger companies in their use (CBI and KPMG Consulting, 2002; DTI, 2003; EU, 2003). Recent research reveals that e-commerce initiatives in SMEs are mainly still at the initial stages, not progressing much beyond e-mail and simple information-based Web pages (e.g., Brown & Lockett, 2004; Levy & Powell, 2003; Oliver `DPDVNRSRXORV6LPLODU¿QGLQJVKDYH been made in other countries and concerns have been raised as to why government-led adoption programmes for SMEs are not more successful (Stockdale & Standing, 2004). The picture is perhaps even worse because there is evidence that many SME Web sites, that were initiated and developed, have not progressed RYHUWLPHEXWUHPDLQLQD³GRUPDQW´VWDJHIRUD period of many months or even years. Indeed, several studies of e-business in the UK have ac-tually reported a decline in the number of SMEs implementing trading online (CBI and KPMG Consulting, 2002; DTI, 2003; EU, 2003) and perhaps surprisingly, the use of Web sites and e-mail has also declined (DTI, 2002, 2003). The aim of this chapter is threefold. Firstly, it aims to examine different approaches for study-ing e-business progression, particularly in the context of SMEs. Secondly, it describes a multi-dimensional research framework as an alternative approach. Lastly, it shows the application of such a framework to study how a sample of SMEs’ Web sites changes over time. The premise of this study is that examining the evolution of Web sites over time provides insights into the actual evolving strategies and motivations behind Internet invest-ments. This work forms part of a wider research study into the evolution of the Web presence of small business in the UK. The motivation for this research is to characterize and model the evolution of SMEs involvement in e-business in terms of PHWULFVDQGSDWWHUQVDVRSSRVHGWRWKHLGHQWL¿FD-tion of stages. The objective of the wider study 198 ... - tailieumienphi.vn