An empirical study on the role of intermediary in global e-business management

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the role of export intermediary firms (EIFs) based on structural equation modeling (SEM) for the unified global economic structure. E-business based export intermediary firms (e-EIFs) have experienced the systematic and professional paradigm shift. For this paradigm shift, we propose two hypotheses: the knowledge hypothesis for the traditional EIFs about the market and products and the new, but mostly supporting, hypothesis for the e-EIFs about cyber trust or credibility. The empirical tests conclude that, as an e-EIF’s traditional knowledge of exporting markets and products and the web-credibility of its own title with brand increases, purchase intention increases as well. It also concludes that the professional support provided by e-EIFs could reduce both the practical barriers of traditional marketing and psychological ones for integrated web marketing. Key words: Knowledge hypothesis, credibility, exports intermediary firms, structural equation modeling (SEM), e-business management