Reseller adoption of manufacturers' e-business tools: The impact of social enforcement, technology-relationship fit and the mediating role of reseller benefits

Manufacturer-reseller relationships are increasingly becoming technology-infused as distribution managers are employing e-business tools to streamline existing channels. This research examines the role of social enforcement, relationship-technology fit and the perceived reseller benefits in reseller adoption of manufacturers' e-business tools. The results of the empirical test involving a sample of 224 resellers suggest that social enforcement and technology-relationship factors impact reseller e-business adoption, while reseller benefits play a mediating role. Implications of these findings for researchers and managers are discussed.     

An E-Valuation Framework for Developing Net-Enabled Business Metrics Through Functionality Interaction

Managers engaged in net-enabled business planning seek metrics to help them analyze the success of their e-business investments. Likewise, researchers require metrics to build analytical models and conduct empirical research on the impact of e-business strategies on firm performance. In this article, the authors develop a comprehensive E-Valuation Framework for identifying net-enabled applications and their resulting user-based functionalities for activities across the value chain. The authors propose that the real value from net-enabled applications can be found in functionality interactions, where one application enables or enhances functionality in another application. The comprehensive framework can be used to generate three types of metrics managers can use to evaluate their net-enabled strategic initiatives. Further, a classification of net-enabled organizations provides the basis for selecting applications critical to a firm's strategic thrusts. We make use of the resource-based view of the firm and real-options analysis to discuss how successful application deployment is based on the resources and assets the firm possesses as well as managing the rollout of an applications portfolio over time. The framework allows managers to map their organization's net-enabled initiatives into a coherent, easily understood visual representation and provides direction for researchers evaluating the efficacy of net-enabled business strategies.     

E-Business Operations Shift: From Supply Chain Management to Sense-and-Response Systems

ABSTRACT

The design of e-business operations is often relegated to the implementation stage of the Internet commerce development process. The objective of this paper is to present a new framework to facilitate continuous electronic communication among trading partners in the supply chain and the seamless integration of electronic operations throughout the e-business development process. As background, the paper reviews e-business design methodology and related supply chain issues. Then, it articulates a demand-driven, sense-and-response system (SRS) framework for guiding e-business operations and monitoring products across value chain networks without hindering human autonomy. The paper presents a model for the SRS integration of business-process enabling strategies, technologies and systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment, Point of Sale, Radio Frequency Identification Tags, and Global Positioning System. These systems can be instrumental in the ultimate SRS framework realization. The paper also examines ways in which SRS framework implementation may prevent the bullwhip effect by quickly anticipating demand and reducing response time.     

Extracting Value from the Supply Chain with Mobile Technologies

Abstract

This paper attempts to alleviate some of the current confusion about the capabilities of mobile technologies in the context of the enterprise and its supply chain. Unique features that differentiate m-business from e-business are explored. We highlight the sources of value creation of m-business applications by extending a theoretical framework proposed by Amit and Zott (2001), and we suggest potential areas in which mobile technologies appear exceptionally suited to produce cost savings or opportunities for differentiation of product or services. Two dimensions of value creation stand out: efficiency and novelty.     

电子商务专业实验教学框架新探

文章针对电子商务专业实验教学中存在的问题,构建了一个包含教学体系、教学内容、教学方法和辅助教学环境四个方面内容的电子商务专业实验教学框架,并结合当前实际提出了具体的实现方案。     

Investigating a neglected part of Schumpeter’s creative army: what drives new-to-the-market innovation in micro-enterprises?

This paper tests a theoretical model to evaluate e-business capability and value in the fast growth small-to-medium enterprise (SME) context. We propose that e-business value depends on how fast growth SMEs deploy IT resources, strategic planning, culture, and business partnerships to develop e-business capability and business process competence which help these companies to achieve outstanding business performance. Structural equation modelling is employed to test our theoretical conceptualization on a cohort of 310 Australian fast growth SMEs across different industrial sectors. The results show that IT resources, strategic IT alignment, market orientation, and business partnerships do contribute significantly and indirectly to SME performance through the development of e-business capability and business process competence. Our study provides an initial empirical evidence to understand the relationship between IT and entrepreneurial SME performance. These findings have important implications for research and business practices.     

浅论电子营销的适用性

电子营销的优势对于企业营销人员来说无非是及其富有诱惑力的,但是,电子商务和互联网技术的复杂和专业性,以及电商技术的多样化程度,也使企业的营销人员和管理者在对电子营销为企业可能带来的竞争优势的幢憬的同时,不得不仔细审视自身企业的内外条件,以确定是否投资电子营销以获得竞争优势.     

What Would Confucius Do? – Confucian Ethics and Self-Regulation in Management

We examined Confucian moral philosophy, primarily the Analects, to determine how Confucian ethics could help managers regulate their own behavior (self-regulation) to maintain an ethical standard of practice. We found that some Confucian virtues relevant to self-regulation are common to Western concepts of management ethics such as benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and trustworthiness. Some are relatively unique, such as ritual propriety and filial piety. We identify seven Confucian principles and discuss how they apply to achieving ethical self-regulation in management. In addition, we examined some of the unique Confucian practices to achieve self-regulation including ritual and music. We balanced the framework by exploring the potential problems in applying Confucian principles to develop ethical self-regulation including whistle blowing. Confucian moral philosophy offers an indigenous Chinese theoretical framework for developing ethical self-regulation in managers. This is relevant for managers and those who relate to managers in Confucian-oriented societies, such as China, Korea, Japan, and Singapore. We recommend further research to examine if the application of the Confucian practices outlined here actually work in regulating the ethical behavior of managers in modern organizations.     

Making bottom-up and top-down processes meet in public innovation

Innovations in an organisation derive from multiple sources. In the public sector, users and the policy sphere provide important but often unconnected impulses for innovation. These impulses are transmitted to the organisation by grassroots employees who interact with users and managers who implement policy requirements. The paper examines the actors and activities that coordinate bottom-up and top-down initiatives and promote their development into innovations. It creates a theoretical framework that combines the views of employee-driven innovation and strategic reflexivity and supplements them with an analysis of coordination in innovation processes. The functioning of this framework is illustrated in the context of children's day care services. The results highlight the central role of middle managers and provide new knowledge regarding their ‘bridging’ activities in innovation. The adjustment of bottom-up and top-down processes requires the personal involvement of managers, and the creation of communication arenas, networks and mediating tools.     

基于社会网络胜任力的职业经理人培训需求研究——从人-环境匹配视角

本文基于现有研究中对网络能力概念的设定,从动态能力理论出发,将职业经理人社会网络胜任力开发为四个构成要素,即网络前瞻能力、网络管理能力、关系优化能力和网络反馈学习能力。同时在培训需求、人-环境匹配等相关理论深入研究的基础上,从人-环境匹配角度强调了在"组织-任务-人"培训需求各层面职业经理人社会网络胜任力的作用机制。职业经理人社会网络胜任力、培训需求和人-环境匹配的分析框架的构建为相关理论和实证研究奠定理论框架。     

International knowledge transfers through expatriates

International knowledge transfer processes and related internal stickiness factors have recently been targets of increasing research interest. However, the role of expatriate managers in these international knowledge transfers is not well understood. The objectives of the present study were (1) to analyze what kind of knowledge is transferred within MNCs and what is the role of expatriates in these transfer processes and (2) develop a theoretical framework on internal stickiness factors faced by the expatriates involved in the knowledge transfer processes on the basis of the literature, and test it empirically. The findings indicate that the role of expatriate managers was very central in the transfer processes. Furthermore, support was received for the theoretical framework of internal stickiness factors. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Developing the local competence of expatriate managers for emerging markets: A knowledge-based approach

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for developing expatriate managers’ local competence in emerging markets from a knowledge-based perspective. We argue that local knowledge in emerging markets differs significantly from corporate knowledge transferred to those markets, and that its very nature determines its critical importance to expatriate managers’ business performance. We explore the processes and mechanisms through which local knowledge can be acquired and integrated into expatriate managers’ knowledge base supporting local talent development and their effective strategic decision-making. We suggest that conventional local competence development strategies may not be effective methods for developing global managers for emerging markets.     

Acegi在电子商务系统中的应用

本文分析了Acegi安全框架,详细说明了Acegi安全框架的工作过程。举例说明了Acegi安全框架的具体应用,讨论了如何利用Acegi进行Web资源的认证和授权。使用一种基于数据库的策略来对Acegi资源配置进行动态扩展,满足电子商务系统中用户在运行期间的动态改变权限的需求。     

Cultural distance and psychic distance: refinements in conceptualisation and measurement

Cultural distance and psychic distance are two concepts that are widely used in the marketing literature to assess the differences between countries. The purpose of this study is to draw attention of researchers and managers to the general failure in the literature to differentiate between the cultural distance and psychic distance concepts. A critical review of the use of these concepts, outlining their theoretical and methodological properties, shows that a large number of studies use both concepts interchangeably with no clear distinction between them. The concepts are, however, conceptually distinct and address different phenomena. A framework is proposed that allows researchers and managers to recognise the exclusive properties of the two concepts.     

The Effects of Cultural Dimensions on Ethical Decision Making in Marketing: An Exploratory Study

As more and more firms operate globally, an understanding of the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making becomes increasingly important for avoiding potential business pitfalls and for designing effective international marketing management programs. Although several articles have addressed this area in general, differences along specific, cultural dimensions have not been directly examined. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in ethical decision making within Hofstede's cultural framework. The results confirm the utility of Hofstede's cultural dimensions and place ethical decision making within an overall theoretical framework. Sales agents from a high power distance, uncertainty avoidant, Confucian, collectivist culture (i.e., Taiwan) placed more value on company and fellow employee interests (vis-à-vis self interests) than did managers from a masculine, individualistic culture (i.e., the United States). American and Taiwanese managers did not differ in their deontological norms or on the importance that they placed on customer interests. The theoretical and managerial importance of these findings are also discussed.     

E-Business Maturity: Constraints Associated With Their Evolution

To compete effectively in the e-business world, an organization must structurally transform its internal foundation. This structural change requires an organization to develop an innovative e-business strategy, focusing on speed to market and breakthrough execution. Despite the recognition and care that in recent years has been dedicated to e-business, there remains a need for continuing research efforts that seek to better understand constraints on the evolution of an organization to a state that can take advantage of e-business possibilities. There is a special need for this when considering small and medium enterprises, or businesses in developing countries. To minimize risk exposure from e-business initiatives, it is imperative for an organization to identify potential constraints on e-business evolution. In this setting, we develop a research model that involves e-business constraints and e-business maturity. We classify the constraints into the categories of environment constraints, organizational constraints, and technological constraints. Our results indicate that there are constraints that can be more or less problematic, depending on the stage of maturity. The results are also quite different in large organizations versus Small and Medium Enterprises.     

Whether,when, and why functional company characteristics engender customer satisfaction and customer-company identification: The role of self-definitional needs

Beyond merely satisfying customers, companies are increasingly striving to build deeper and more meaningful customer relationships characterized by strong customer-company identification. However, whereas previous research has solely focused on symbolic drivers of identification, it remains unclear whether, when, and how managers can build on core functional company characteristics (i.e., quality, innovativeness, and price) to establish customer–company identification. The present study addresses these questions by developing a theoretical framework based on theoretical notions of social identity theory and the cue diagnosticity framework. Evidence from two field studies and one experimental study shows that functional company characteristics are not effective in creating customer–company identification per se, but that their influence depends on whether they match with a self-definitional need that is important to the customer (i.e., self-continuity, self-distinctiveness, or self-enhancement). The findings also reveal the underlying mechanism of this contingency by showing that a self-definitional need fosters customer–company identification because it strengthens the symbolic value of a matching functional characteristic. By identifying specific characteristic–need matches, this research offers novel insights into how managers can leverage functional company characteristics in their targeting and communication efforts to establish meaningful long-term relationships with customers.     

利用需求分析三阶段实施中小型企业电子商务项目运作管理

目前,中小型企业对电子商务的需求越来越迫切,但由于种种原因,电子商务在实际中却未充分利用,究其原因主要是对电子商务项目管理的需求分析不足,从中小企业生命周期入手,以不同生命周期阶段对电子商务项目需求不同,提供一些可操作性的理论基础———掌握电子商务项目需求分析三阶段方法,正确实施中小企业电子商务项目管理。     

50 years of research on international standardization and adaptation—From a systematic literature analysis to a theoretical framework

When going and operating abroad, firms face the challenge of finding the optimal balance between standardizing and adapting their marketing strategies across national borders in order to be successful. In this contribution, we present the major results of a systematic literature analysis in the field of international marketing standardization/adaptation. Based on our findings, we introduce a theoretical framework combined with the concept of situation-strategy fit. This framework serves as a basis for providing theoretically grounded and empirically testable recommendations regarding performance-enhancing strategies of international product standardization/adaptation in given situations. We argue that a high degree of international product standardization is likely to enhance foreign product profit, as compared to all alternative strategies, if there is (1) a high cross-national homogeneity of demand, (2) a high potential for cross-national economies of scale, (3) a high cost of product modification, (4) a high foreign price elasticity of demand, (5) a small perceptual error of the managers, and (6) a high quality of strategy execution. By presenting the state-of-the-art knowledge in the field and by introducing a novel theoretical framework, our paper has important implications for both scholars and managers in the fields of international marketing and international business.     

Globalisation,E-Business and SMEs: Evidence from the Italian District of Prato

The paper explores how SMEs located in industrial districts explore e-business as a means to face the challenges posed by globalisation. By resorting to case studies conducted in the textile district of Prato, the research evidences the positive attitude of the interviewed entrepreneurs towards e-business. However, the characteristics of the considered products (textiles) and the district structure strongly affect the path followed to explore the scenarios opened by e-business. The collected evidence suggests that only few firms in the district are actively pursuing the full range of opportunities provided by e-business, and that isolated actions are not enough to foster collective learning and growth processes involving the whole district.