The Search for Strategic Advantage from the World Wide Web

The rapid growth of the World Wide Web has opened up a new avenue for companies to market products and services and to disseminate information. Two hundred and twelve companies responded to an e-mail survey about their reasons for conducting business on a Web shopping mall. Most of them were seeking to create strategic advantage. A structural equation model is consistent with the view that they expected to create strategic advantage through improved customer relations resulting from greater business efficiency and better information access and flexibility. The research (1) underscores the significance of improved customer relations as a predictor of Web-based strategic advantage, (2) highlights the importance of information access, information flexibility, and business efficiency in contrast to alignment, information quality, communications efficiency, and systems development efficiency in the Web-based improvement of customer relations, (3) confirms and extends a framework for future study, and (4) stimulates future study about how the Web can enhance competitiveness.

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