Connecting Strategies to Resources: Scale Development of a Resource Bundle for Internet Retailing

Abstract

Service strategy literature emphasizes the alignment of target market, service concept, and service delivery system. This article reports scale development of a resource bundle that is useful to implement service strategies in Internet retailing. Three dimensions of the resource bundle are proposed in this study. They cover three alignment parts between target market and service concept, service concept and service delivery system, and target market and service delivery system. To rigorously develop the measurement scale, this study uses a two-stage procedure which comprises an item-level study that uses judges and a scale-level study that employs a survey of Internet retailers. Finally, a second-order measurement model of the resource bundle with a total of 14 measurement items was established. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis reveal empirical evidence of resource complementarities, thereby providing critical information about desirable resource allocation for Internet commerce and, in turn, carrying some managerial implications.