Corporate Success in electronic business

More about the book

Despite the decline of Internet hype, electronic business has become essential for many companies. However, the path to success through these activities remains unclear, leaving decision-makers uncertain about which concepts to implement. This raises two key questions: What are the success factors in electronic business, and how do they vary by company type, such as size or B2B versus B2C? This dissertation tackles these issues through a quantitative empirical research project, employing a theory and hypothesis-driven approach. Three significant contributions emerge from this work. First, it establishes a general research framework for studying success factors in electronic business, integrating insights from the field of information systems research. Second, it offers a thorough comparison of two multivariate techniques: partial least squares (PLS) and covariance structure analysis (CSA). Most importantly, it presents evidence on the effectiveness of four groups of success factors: e-procurement, strategy, electronic commerce customer relationship management (ECCRM), and Web Features, focusing on corporate website design and management. The analysis is based on survey data from 469 companies in the German-speaking market. The dissertation concludes with a detailed discussion of findings and reflections on the research process, providing actionable advice for managing electronic business across different company types.