Internet-Business or Just Business?: Impact of `Internet-Specific¿ Strategies on Venture Performance

This study examines the relationship between 21 ‘internet-specific strategies’ and the performance of internet-trading ventures. ‘Internet-specific strategies’ are defined as business strategies specifically relevant in the internet-trading context. They were proposed mostly by practitioner-oriented exploratory literature, based on case studies of leading dot-coms. Does the application of such strategies increase performance for the bulk of the new ventures (dot.coms and new divisions of large companies) trading on the internet? The results of a large survey of 406 internet ventures in the UK were quite controversial. Despite the fact that we have found statistically significant correlations between the majority of ‘internet-specific strategies’ and venture performance in at least one industrial sector, the coefficients were weak and the regression model proved statistically insignificant. This raises questions over the validity of practitioner-led theories about internet business. Business on the internet might be just business.

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