Resources, Electronic-Commerce Capabilities and Electronic-Commerce Benefits: Conceptualizing the Links

Abstract

Past research on electronic commerce (e-commerce) in developing economies (DEs) shows that there is an acute lack of theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence to understand how DE firms orient resources to create e-commerce capabilities and achieve e-commerce benefits amidst their national constraints. This paper uses the resource-based theory and the capability life cycle to investigate how a used-car retail firm in Ghana oriented resources to create e-commerce capabilities and achieve e-commerce benefits. Findings from the longitudinal case study suggest that, first, in DEs, because the institutional foundations are weak and the obstacles are many, managerial capabilities and global information systems (IS) resources enable firms to withstand or circumvent the national constraints and create e-commerce capabilities and benefits. Second, the value of resources to a firm is relatively time and path dependent; changes in the environment can either initiate their renewal or decline in the firm. Having a focus on the strategic orientation of the firm is therefore of more value than focusing on IS resources. The paper proposes a cyclic resource-based model of e-commerce capability evolution which offers new insights into the way in which e-commerce capabilities evolve to create e-commerce benefits.