The Role of Economic Development and Firm Internationalization in Internet Business Practices

Whitaker, J., N.P. Melville, R.K. Plice, J. Dedrick. "The Role of Economic Development and Firm Internationalization in Internet Business Practices," Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Volume 27, Article 31, pp. 611-626, November 2010.

18 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2019

See all articles by Jonathan Whitaker

Jonathan Whitaker

University of Richmond, Robins School of Business

Nigel P. Melville

University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business; University of Michigan, College of Engineering

Robert K. Plice

San Diego State University

Jason Dedrick

University of California, Irvine

Date Written: August 13, 2010

Abstract

Firms from emerging economies are rapidly becoming formidable competitors to established industry leaders from developed economies. Aside from anecdotal reports, there is little scholarly evidence concerning the operational details of how emerging economy firms are becoming competitive with developed economy firms. This article addresses the gap by building on the International Business, Strategy and Information Systems literature, and through an empirical analysis of original survey data for 468 firms across ten countries. We develop three primary empirical findings. First, despite the differences between emerging economy firms and developed economy firms, we find that emerging economy/high internationalization firms use marketing- and supply chain-oriented Internet business practices with about the same frequency as developed economy/high internationalization firms. Second, we find that emerging economy/high internationalization firms are more driven than developed economy/high internationalization firms to use Internet business practices to expand existing markets and enter new markets. Third, we find that emerging economy/high internationalization firms report relatively higher sales and customer service impacts from Internet business practices than do developed economy/ high internationalization firms. These findings suggest that emerging economy firms have used the Internet as a resource to position themselves as credible competitors to developed economy firms.

Keywords: Internet, International, Adoption, Success, It Strategy, It Business, Survey, Case Study, Organization, Inter-Organizational Systems

Suggested Citation

Whitaker, Jonathan and Melville, Nigel P. and Plice, Robert K. and Dedrick, Jason, The Role of Economic Development and Firm Internationalization in Internet Business Practices (August 13, 2010). Whitaker, J., N.P. Melville, R.K. Plice, J. Dedrick. "The Role of Economic Development and Firm Internationalization in Internet Business Practices," Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Volume 27, Article 31, pp. 611-626, November 2010., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1017995 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1017995

Jonathan Whitaker (Contact Author)

University of Richmond, Robins School of Business ( email )

1 Gateway Road
Richmond, VA 23229
United States
804.287.6524 (Phone)
804.289.8878 (Fax)

Nigel P. Melville

University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business ( email )

701 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI MI 48109
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.nigelpmelville.com/

University of Michigan, College of Engineering ( email )

Ann Arbor, MI
United States

HOME PAGE: http://isd.engin.umich.edu/graduate-degree-programs/design-science/

Robert K. Plice

San Diego State University ( email )

San Diego, CA 92182-0763
United States

Jason Dedrick

University of California, Irvine ( email )

Campus Drive
Irvine, CA 62697-3125
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
783
Abstract Views
4,184
Rank
58,565
PlumX Metrics