E-BUSINESS STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE

Facing pressures from an increasingly competitive business environment, manufacturing SMEs are called upon to implement strategies that are enabled and supported by information technologies and e-business applications. Based on the Internet and Web technologies, these include applications such as ecommunication, e-commerce, e-business intelligence and e-collaboration. From a contingency theory perspective, and using survey data obtained from 107 Canadian manufacturing SMEs, this study examines the alignment of e-business development with business strategy, based on Miles and Snow’s strategic typology. The performance outcomes of this alignment in terms of growth, productivity and financial performance are also examined. Results indicate that the ideal e-business development profiles vary in the relation to the firms’ strategic orientation, whether it is of the Defender, Analyzer or Prospector type.

[1]  G. Sánchez-Marín,et al.  Strategic Orientation, Management Characteristics, and Performance: A Study of Spanish SMEs , 2005 .

[2]  Ming-Hsien Yang,et al.  The impacts of establishing enterprise information portals on e-business performance , 2005, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[3]  Abby Ghobadian,et al.  Innovation in SMEs: the impact of strategic orientation and environmental perceptions , 2005 .

[4]  W. DeSarbo,et al.  Revisiting the Miles and Snow Strategic Framework: Uncovering Interrelationships between Strategic Types, Capabilities, Environmental Uncertainty, and Firm Performance , 2005 .

[5]  Louis Raymond,et al.  Ideal patterns of strategic alignment and business performance , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[6]  Kevin Zhu,et al.  Global Technology, Local Adoption: A Cross-Country Investigation of Internet Adoption by Companies in the United States and China , 2004, Electron. Mark..

[7]  Terri Scott,et al.  A consideration of the roles of business intelligence and e-business in management and marketing decision making in knowledge-based and high-tech start-ups , 2004 .

[8]  Luc Cassivi,et al.  The Impact of E‐collaboration Tools on Firms' Performance , 2004 .

[9]  Ephraim R. McLean,et al.  Key Issues for IT Executives , 2004, MIS Q. Executive.

[10]  Ekrem Tatoglu,et al.  An exploratory study of Internet adoption by SMEs in an emerging market economy , 2003 .

[11]  Philip Powell,et al.  Exploring SME Internet Adoption: Towards a Contingent Model , 2003, Electron. Mark..

[12]  M. Vézina,et al.  Les places d'affaires électroniques face aux sites Web d'entreprise : enjeux et choix stratégiques , 2002 .

[13]  Carleen F. Maitland,et al.  Strategic use of the Internet by small- and medium-sized companies: an exploratory study , 2002, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[14]  François Bergeron,et al.  An information technology trilogy: business strategy, technological deployment and organizational performance , 2001, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[15]  Rajiv Sabherwal,et al.  Alignment Between Business and IS Strategies: A Study of Prospectors, Analyzers, and Defenders , 2001, Inf. Syst. Res..

[16]  Louis Raymond,et al.  Testing the Validity of Miles and Snow's Typology , 1999 .

[17]  Louis Raymond,et al.  EDI success in small and medium-sized enterprises: A field study , 1996, J. Organ. Comput. Electron. Commer..

[18]  K. Hatten,et al.  Further evidence on the validity of the self typing paragraph approach: Miles and snow strategic , 1995 .

[19]  James A. O'Brien.  Les systèmes d'information de gestion , 1995 .

[20]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[21]  R. E. Miles,et al.  Fit, Failure and the Hall of Fame , 1984 .

[22]  D. Hambrick.  Some tests of the effectiveness and functional attributes of Miles and Snow's strategic types. , 1983, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[23]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[24]  Tom R. Burns,et al.  The Management of Innovation. , 1963 .