Customer Readiness Research Articles

An empirical investigation of net-enabled business value

Many traditional organizations have undertaken major initiatives to leverage the Internet to transform how they coordinate value activities with customers, suppliers, and other business partners with the objective of improving firm performance. This paper addresses processes through which business value is created through such Internet-enabled value chain activities. Relying on the resource-based view of the firm, we propose a model positing that a firm's abilities to coordinate and exploit firm resources (processes, information technology, and readiness of customers and suppliers) create online informational capabilities (a higher order resource) which then leads to improved operational and financial performance. The outcome of a firm's online informational capabilities is reflected in superior operational performance through customer and supplier-side digitization efforts, which reflect the extent to which transactions and external interactions occur electronically. We also hypothesize that increased customer and supplier-side digitization leads to better financial performance. The model is tested with data from over 1,000 firms in the manufacturing, retail, and wholesale sectors. The analysis suggests that while most firms are lagging in their supplier-side initiatives relative to the customer-side, supplier-side digitization has a strong positive impact on customer-side digitization, which, in turn, leads to better financial performance. Further, both customer and supplier readiness to engage in digital interactions are shown to be as important as a firm's internal digitization initiatives, implying that a firm's transformation-related decisions should include its customers' and suppliers' resources and incentives.

Internet Retailing Adoption by Small-to-Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs): A Multiple-Case Study

Despite the proliferation of Internet retailing and the relative novelty and complexity of this phenomenon, very little theory-guided qualitative research has been conducted to improve our understanding of the adoption of Internet retailing project by SMEs. This study presents a theoretical framework for analyzing the adoption of Internet retailing for SMEs. Organizational readiness (IT sophistication, financial resources, and customer readiness), perceived benefits of Internet retailing, and environmental factors are proposed to be the key drivers of adoption of Internet retailing. This research was designed using a qualitative approach through in-depth case studies selected from firms in Hong Kong where there is a proliferation of SMEs. The contextual meaning and practical manifestation of the key adoption factors were captured through the case studies. Our findings provide preliminary support for the proposed research framework, and contribute towards a better conceptual and practical understanding of the main factors driving SMEs to adopt Internet retailing. Contrary to popular belief, customer readiness for Internet shopping was not found to be a significant factor influencing SMEs' decision to adopt Internet retailing.

An Empirical Investigation of Net-Enabled Business Value

Many traditional organizations have undertaken major initiatives to leverage the Internet to transform how they coordinate value activities with customers, suppliers, and other business partners with the objective of improving firm performance. This paper addresses processes through which business value is created through such Internet-enabled value chain activities. Relying on the resource-based view of the firm, we propose a model positing that a firm's abilities to coordinate and exploit firm resources (processes, information technology, and readiness of customers and suppliers) create online informational capabilities (a higher order resource) which then leads to improved operational and financial performance. The outcome of a firm's online informational capabilities is reflected in superior operational performance through customer and supplier-side digitization efforts, which reflect the extent to which transactions and external interactions occur electronically. We also hypothesize that increased customer and supplier-side digitization leads to better financial performance. The model is tested with data from over 1,000 firms in the manufacturing, retail, and wholesale sectors. The analysis suggests that while most firms are lagging in their supplier-side initiatives relative to the customer-side, supplier-side digitization has a strong positive impact on customer-side digitization, which, in turn, leads to better financial performance. Further, both customer and supplier readiness to engage in digital interactions are shown to be as important as a firm's internal digitization initiatives, implying that a firm's transformation-related decisions should include its customers' and suppliers' resources and incentives.

Critical Success Factors in the Development of Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce

The ubiquity of the Internet is enabling many enterprises, including small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop cost-effective electronic business-to-business (B-to-B) relationships. Currently, little is known about what strategies and tactics lead to successful adoption of B-to-B e-commerce. The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) that underlie the development of Internet-mediated B-to-B e-commerce. A candidate list of CSFs was developed from academic and practitioner literatures. This was followed by a case study of organizations engaged in supply-chain B-to-B e-commerce relationships in the transport and logistics industry. Among the CSFs identified by the CIO respondents, four stood out as being uniformly important: holding a clear e-business vision, customer readiness, top management support, and creative, flexible managerial thinking. The CSFs identified by the CIOs are compared to those found in the literature, and the discrepancies are identified and discussed.

Making E-business pay: eight key drivers for operational success

How does a company achieve high levels of operational performance in e-business? It invests in e-business drivers, key factors to maximize e-business value, related to technology, business processes, and readiness of customers and suppliers to achieve operational excellence. At the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, University of Texas at Austin, we conducted a large-scale study to assess e-business value in small, medium, and large companies across the US and Europe. This study, sponsored by Dell Computer, identifies the critical links between e-business drivers, financial indicators, and operational excellence measures. The extensive survey of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and wholesalers reveals that investing in e-business drivers pays off.

Home and away: the residential care, education and control of children in historical and political context

ABSTRACTChildren — particularly adolescent boys — may be placed residentially by a variety of agencies in Britain, and there is a strong tradition among the upper middle classes of boarding at private fee‐paying schools. The number of children involved, however, is diminishing, though this is as much caused by shorter stays as fewer admissions. The factors influencing this decline in residence vary from sector to sector. However, the emergence of viable alternatives to residence and the increased readiness of potential customers to exercise choice in the placement of their children is a common thread.