Exploring IT business value creation in a Taobao Village EC ecosystem: A systems theory perspective

Abstract

By extending and elaborating on Nevo and Wade's systems theory perspective, we propose a model to validate the causal relationships among platform compatibility, integration effort, realized synergy, and IT business value (decomposed into social and economic value) within the context of a Taobao village E-commerce (EC) ecosystem. We collected data from Taobao village EC ecosystems to validate the proposed hypotheses. Using 258 valid responses, we reveal the following: (1) Platform compatibility, a second-order latent construct, includes IT-commerce alignment and resource-sharing routine alignment. Platform compatibility positively affects realized synergy. (2) Integration effort positively affects platform compatibility and realized synergy. (3) Realized synergy positively impacts social and economic value. (4) Realized synergy mediates the relationship between critical enablers (integration effort and platform compatibility) and social and economic value. Specifically, the relationship between platform compatibility and social and economic value is partially mediated, while the relationship between integration effort and value is fully mediated. These findings extend systems theory by offering deeper insights into the integration of systems theory and RBV, particularly highlighting the mediating role of synergy. They reveal that compatibility and integration effort directly contribute to value creation, and that synergy further amplifies these effects.