Classifying enterprises on the basis of WWW use: a behavioral approach

Purpose – Research studies have started to appear in recent years about the use of world wide web (WWW) by organizations. In an attempt to shed more light into this issue, this study seeks to take a behavioral approach for classifying enterprises on the basis of WWW use. It aims to address two research questions: Can different organizational profiles reveal as a result of a classification scheme/taxonomy of enterprises based on WWW use? and If such a classification is possible, to what extent are the WWW usage profiles related to specific market, organizational and demographic characteristics?Design/methodology/approach – The sampling frame of the study consisted of the largest 1,250 firms in Greece in terms of sales turnover that had already adopted information and communication technologies. After three follow‐up contacts by telephone, e‐mail and fax the cooperation of 500 companies was secured (40 percent response rate). Data collection was carried out by a professional market research firm by means of...

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