e Business Success Framework

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International Journal of Information Management 25 (2005) 137149

Online business: tailoring your business environment inorder to compete

Muammer Ozer

Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Abstract

Companies have been trying to establish a presence on the fast-growing Internet in order to be morecompetitive. At the same time, the Internet business environment is becoming increasingly complex anduncertain. This paper presents a conceptual model for the success of online businesses based on theliteratures in information management , product innovation , and strategic management . It should be useful forresearchers to develop and test research hypotheses and for practitioners to manage their online businessmore effectively.r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Online business; Competitive advantage; Business environment; Internet

1. Introduction

Online businesses need to operate within an uncertain and multifaceted legal system, compete withhighly capable competitors, keep up with rapidly changing technologies, and respond to emergingsocial and cultural demands. Given the highly dynamic and uncertain nature of the Internet

environment, it has not been a big surprise to witness the failure of a large number of online initiativessoon after their market introduction. Past literature offers a great number of studies in the area of e-business ( Viborg-Andersen, Elliot, Swatman, Trauth, & Bjorn-Andersen, 2003 ; Weill & Vitale, 2001 ).Despite the large number of earlier studies, there are also calls for more research in the area, which will

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Tel.: +85227887852; fax: +852 27887220.E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Ozer).
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integrate multiple disciplines into a single study and offer a holistic view of e-business ( Clarke, 2003 ;Lichtenstein & Swatman, 2003 ). This paper responds to this call and signicantly extends the previousliterature by integrating prominent theories in disciplines such as information management , productinnovation , and strategic management and presenting a conceptual model for the success of onlinebusinesses. Moreover, it incorporates the impacts of such external factors as legal, competitive,technological, as well as social and cultural environments into the model.

As Fig. 1 shows a successful online business, rst, collects and uses relevant businessintelligence; second, it offers superior products/services; third, it capitalizes on its technologicalcompetencies; fourth, it involves a exible approach; fth, it is well integrated with the otherfunctions of the rm; and nally, it takes advantage of relationships with suppliers, distributors,customers, and other complementary businesses. Fig. 1 also suggests that different legal,competitive, technological, as well as social and cultural environments moderate the impacts of these factors on the success of an online business.

This paper uses a large number of examples from business publications in order to givesubstance to the model. The elements of the model, their impacts on the success of an onlinebusiness and their potential pitfalls are discussed. Then, attention is focussed on the moderatingroles of different legal, competitive, technological, and social and cultural environments in thesuccess of an online business. After that, the differential impacts of the factors on brick andmortar and born digital companies are highlighted. The paper concludes with suggestions of some managerial and research implications.

2. Business intelligence

The information processing view of the rm suggests that, in rapidly changing environments,rms will need more rather than less market information ( Galbraith, 1974 ). Furthermore,

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SUCCESSFULON LINE

BUSINESS

LEGAL

ENVIRONMENT

COMPETITIVE

ENVIRONMENT

TECHNOLOGICAL

ENVIRONMENT

SOCIAL AND

CULTURAL ENV.

IntegratedStrategies

Flexibility

TechnologicalCompetence

Product/ServiceSuperiority

Business Intelligence

Relationships

Fig. 1. A framework for the success of online businesses.

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numerous studies have also argued that rms abilities to collect from the environmentinformation that their competitors overlook can be fundamentally important for them to enhancethe success of their business ( Porter & Miller, 1985 ; Frishammar, 2002 ). Online businesses shouldalso benet from business intelligence so as to enhance their performance. In fact, successfulonline rms gather market information to design their online offerings. For instance, FriendsUnited in the UK observed that people want to be part of a community and thus set up an onlineservice bringing old school friends together and thereby attracting 8.5 million members ( Wall,2003 ). Similarly, an online bookmaker, Sporttingbet, started to offer online betting services afterobserving the Internets potential to reach lucrative markets in Asia. It is expected to generatemore than 1.2 billion in revenues ( Wall, 2003 ).

Firms also gather intelligence to reinvent themselves, as reected in Yahoos recent re-focus of its business. Based on market trends, the company restructured its revenue generation strategies,reducing its reliance on Internet advertisements and focusing more on premium subscription

services. The company reported earnings of $43 million in 2002 compared to a loss of $93 millionin 2001 ( Taylor, 2003 ).Collecting and using business intelligence is obviously important for online businesses.

However, they should also keep in mind that information about the Internet may be unreliabledue to its highly dynamic and uncertain nature. Many predictions about the Internet have beenproven wrong in a short period of time ( Jaffe, 2003 ). Hence, companies need to assess the qualityof the intelligence that they collect and possibly use multiple sources to cross-validate it and toenhance its reliability.

3. Product/service superiority

The success of a new offering depends on the added value that it provides to its end users.Indeed, Cooper (1996) showed that one of the top success factors for new products was deliveringa relatively superior product. Similarly, de Brentani and Ragot (1996) also found that productsuperiority was the most important determinant of success of new services. Numerous otherstudies have also shown that relative product superiority is positively related to rms competitiveadvantage and success ( Calantone, Schmidt, & Song, 1996 ; Song & Parry, 1997 ).

It follows that online businesses can attract people to their websites only when they offer asuperior product or service. Indeed, it has been argued that a small New Zealand rm,Rhinestonz.com.nz, has achieved a great success by selling rhinestones online because many

people could not get them anywhere else ( ORourke, 2003 ). This distinct value has allowed it togenerate nearly 70% of its business from international customers compared to around 10% that ithad before going online. On the other hand, the spectacular failure of Boo.com in the UK hasbeen attributed to its huge spending on TV ads without offering much to its customers ( Gibson,2003 ).

Despite the obvious importance of product/service superiority, many online businesses have notyet paid the necessary attention to this area. For example, a recent consultation of several onlinesites indicates that they have not been carefully designed. For instance, an online credit cardbusiness (marbles.com) only accepted information in a certain format, but did not specify theformat for its customers; and another online credit card rm (egg.com) did not accept post ofce

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box numbers as an address in its online forms. Thus, one had to call these companies to completetheir transactions ( Bowen, 2003a ). These examples suggest that when people need moreexpediency they might visit other sites that are more exible and convenient.

Product/service superiority is very important for the success of an online business, and intensecompetition requires rms to continuously reinvent and improve their online business to survive.In fact, published reports suggest that many successful online businesses such as Yahoo ( Taylor,2003 ), eBay ( Wingeld & Lundegaard, 2003 ), and Google ( Markoff & Zachary, 2003a ) have notonly offered superior products but also constantly reinvented themselves and hence been able toremain successful for a long time.

4. Technological competence

As online businesses heavily depend on technology, rms need to have the necessary technicalcapabilities to function. Both the transaction-cost and the resource-based theories suggest thatrms need to have technological competencies in order to be successful. The transaction costtheory implies that technological competencies help rms achieve operational efciencies and thusgive them competitive advantages that otherwise cannot be obtained ( Afuah, 2003 ). On the otherhand, the resource-based theory suggests that rms technological capabilities along with otherresources provide them a competitive advantage and thus make them more successful ( Bharadwaj,2000 ). Indeed, technology has been instrumental in the success of a large number of onlinebusinesses in a wide range of areas, including online auctions ( Wingeld & Lundegaard, 2003 );banks ( Grant, 2003 ); groceries ( Ody, 2003 ); retailers ( Hanrahan, 2003 ); and search engines(Markoff, & Zachary, 2003a ).

Despite the importance of technology in the success of an online business, rms should notoverlook the human aspect of their operations. For instance, Northwestern Mutual FinancialServices uses the Internet heavily in its business. At the same time, the company is very cognizantof the fact that technology is not a substitute for working with a client, but is merely a tool tobuild and enhance buyerseller relationships ( Ruquet, 2003 ). It follows that companies canincrease their success if they take into account the human aspects of the technology in their onlineinitiatives.

5. Flexibility

Flexibility can help companies in two signicant ways: rst, it enables rms to use theirresources in multiple settings and thus creates additional resources. Second, it allows them tocoordinate their activities through more effective and efcient redenition of their strategies aswell as reconguration and redeployment of their resources ( Sanchez, 1995 ). These two factors inturn reduce the cost, time, and difculty of changing the mix and use of company resources. Assuggested by the resource-based and the transaction-cost theories, additional resources andreduced costs can enhance companies competitiveness and hence their success.

Because of the highly dynamic nature of the Internet environment, rms are expected to bemore successful when they follow exible strategies, adapting them to the rapidly changing

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requirements of the marketplace. In a detailed investigation of the role of exibility in onlinebusiness, Ozer (2002) argued that todays market conditions require online businesses to take aholistic view of exibility instead of just emphasizing the customization and personalizationaspects of an online business. To do this, they have to try to enhance the exibility of theirbusiness through the different functional aspects of their business, including technology, humanresources, operations, marketing, nance, and management.

Flexibility can undoubtedly help rms cope with the changing needs of the environment.However, they still need to insert some control measures into their operations in order to ensurequality. For instance, online search engines allow people to search the Internet by name, subject,region, product type, and price and thus are highly exible. However, the services provided bysuch rms may not be of high quality. A recent search in a popular online search engine generated3,060,000 results, seriously overwhelming people with information ( Bowen, 2003b ). Consequently,it is imperative for companies to maintain the quality of their products and services while pursuing

exibility.

6. Integrated strategies

An integrated approach can help a rm achieve a common frame of reference among itsactivities and better deploy its resources to achieve their objectives ( Henderson & Sifonis, 1988 ;Teo & King, 1996 ). In the area of information systems planning, for instance, Teo and King(1996) found that rms achieved a higher organizational performance when their business andinformation system planning were integrated. They also showed that the integration had anegative relationship with the extent of organizational, implementation, database, and hardwareproblems. In the area of ofce automation, it was also shown that rms with a higher degree of integration in their ofce information systems had more successful systems ( Law & Gorla, 1996 ).

Because of the interaction of an online business with such back-ofce functions as purchasingand manufacturing, and with such front-ofce activities as warehousing and delivering, it isexpected that online businesses can enhance their performance if they integrate their onlineinitiatives with the rest of their business. Moreover, because an integrated approach requires rmsto focus on the whole business instead of a single function, they can benet from an integratedstrategy more, as they can respond to the requirements of different market conditions better.Amazon.com, eBay, and Expedia are generating annual sales in access of $1 billion each while

many online businesses have failed ( Nairn, 2003 ). The success of these businesses can be partiallyexplained by their ability to integrate their online businesses with their ofine support functions.However, implementing an integrated strategy can be rather challenging. In order to

successfully integrate an online business with other functions, companies need to adopt softwarethat can be implemented across different systems and across different organizational structures(Breyer, 2003 ). Furthermore, there is a lack of industry standards stipulating how differentsoftware applications communicate in terms of messaging formats, session management, and dataexchanges ( Brown & Sappeneld, 2003 ). There is also the human side of integration, suggestingthat companies need to make sure that people involved in the process share and support theintegrated strategies ( Ruquet, 2003 ).

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using some relationship software, but is more about a strategic mindset to fulll the requirementsof such relationships.

8. Moderating market conditions

8.1. The legal environment

Extensive studies have been conducted to adapt existing laws to online business in the areas of copyright protection, privacy, deceptive business practices, protection of children, onlinecontracts, digital signatures, tariffs and taxations, and cyber-crimes ( Cordy, 2003 ). The successof online rms depends on their understanding of related regulations and their ability to offeronline products and services based on this understanding.

Firms can also follow exible strategies so as to lessen the negative impacts of regulations ontheir business. For example, while many online car-sellers failed because they tried to sell carsonline in states where state laws prohibited direct sales by out-of state-rms, autobytel.com,carsdirect.com, and autotrader.com have adopted such exible strategies as dealer referral andlisting of cars for sale and achieved success ( Keefe, 2003 ).

In highly regulated industries including online gambling, music, pharmaceutical, and nancial-services industries, online businesses build technological competencies such as geolocationservices and integrate them into their websites to enhance their success. These services enable anonline business to determine the physical location of individual users and to prevent someonefrom engaging in illegal transactions ( The revenge of geography, 2003 ). Consequently, these

businesses can fulll the requirements of their legal environments and thus be more successful.Finally, companies can form relationships with other rms in order to reduce the limitingimpacts of regulations. In the music industry, for instance, major recording companies haveformed the Recording Industry Association of America to ght online music piracy, and theassociation is now asking the ofcials of major universities to stop illegal music sharing on campus(Newman, 2003 ). In another case, AOL Time Warner is building a relationship with a Chinese PCmanufacturer, Legend Holdings, to enter Chinas Internet market where current regulations limitthe amount of foreign ownership ( AOL Time Warner, 2003 ). As these cases suggest, relationshipscan help rms improve the prosperity of their online businesses in loosely or highly regulatedmarket environments.

8.2. The competitive environment

Firms need to collect business intelligence from their markets and offer superior products andservices so as to maintain their competitiveness. In the highly competitive mortgage lendingindustry, DeepGreen Bank of Ohio, USA, for instance, focuses on what people want from anonline mortgage lender, including a fast transaction, unconditional decisions and the ability tocomplete the entire transaction online. These distinct characteristics have helped the bankgenerate around $1.25 billion in annual revenues ( Grant, 2003 ). Similarly, rms can enhance theircompetitiveness by investing in technological competencies as in the case of Google whose success

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is widely attributed to its investments in hardware and software development ( Markoff, &Zachary, 2003a ).

As discussed earlier, exibility and integrated strategies can also increase the success of onlinebusinesses in competitive environments. The importance of exibility is highlighted in the case of Staples, Inc. that offers its customers the exibility to shop from its online and ofine stores, topick-up and return items purchased online, and to order online but make payments in stores incase they wish not to use their credit cards in online transactions ( Hanrahan, 2003 ). Similarly, theimportance of integrated strategies in competitive markets is shown in the case of QVC, Inc., amajor-home shopping rm, which uses an integrated distribution system called drop-shipping.With the system, as soon as a customer places an order on its website, the order is relayed to oneof its 180 worldwide drop-shippers including manufacturers and distributors, which then ship theordered items directly to the customers. Given that it offers nearly a million different itemsthrough its website, its close integration with the drop-shippers enables the rm to have the

ordered items delivered to the customers on time and thus to enhance its competitiveness(Fuscaldo, 2003 ).In competitive environments, a single rms resources may not be enough to combat the

competition, but partnering with another rm can enhance the capabilities of both rms andhence their success. eBay, for instance, has partnered with EachNet.com to expand its business inChina. The partnership generates more than $1.8 million a year based on the local knowledge of EachNet.com and the technological and business expertise of eBay ( Chang, 2003 ). We can see thatneither of the rms could have achieved this success without the help of its partner in such aunique competitive market environment.

8.3. The technological environment

Technological changes in the environment affect rms differently, as not all use the sametechnology. Online retailers, for instance, would be more interested in Internet securitytechnologies, whereas rms using the Internet merely for public relations purposes would notbe so concerned about secure online transactions. Therefore, business intelligence about thetechnological environment will enable rms to identify their technological needs, to determinealternative technologies to fulll them and to invest in more relevant technologies.

Advanced technologies can help rms maintain the superiority of their products and services.Firms that are interested in enhancing their technological capabilities can easily acquire related

technologies from the marketplace. This ready availability of relevant technologies, however,means that rms may not be able to achieve success by merely having the technology, but can onlydo so by strategically using it. Indeed, while many online used car dealerships failed afterconcluding that people were not interested in buying used cars online without a test drive, eBayMotors made about $100 million in revenues from used car sales through its website in 2002. Thecompanys success was partially attributed to its strategy that allows people to rate the dealers andto offer car buyers free purchase insurance ( Wingeld & Lundegaard, 2003 ). The Internettechnology used by eBay Motors is more or less available to every rm. However, what makeseBay Motors more successful compared to its rivals is its ability to use the technology in thiscompetitive way.

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Relationships can also be relevant in different social and cultural contexts. For example, peopleliving in the West value expert opinions. Hence, building relationships with industry experts insuch a social and cultural environments can be instrumental in achieving success on the Internet.In the fashion industry, for instance, people usually want to touch and feel a fabric and see itsactual color, which can be quite difcult to present in a computer monitor. Thus, Worth GlobalStyle Network, a fashion news provider, is working with numerous industry specialists to provideauthoritative descriptions of such features ( About WGSN, 2003 ).

9. The differential impacts of the factors on brick and mortar and born digital companies

Because brick and mortar companies (BMCs) have their traditional ways of doing business,their online extensions will usually require them to invest in necessary Internet technologies ( Chan

& Pollard, 2003 ), to adapt their business to the online environment ( Kanter, 2001 ) and to aligntheir online and ofine operations and strategies more than born digital companies (BDCs)(Chang, Jackson, & Grover, 2003 ). Furthermore, because of their established brand names,marketing capabilities and relationships with their suppliers, they can usually enjoy signicantcost and marketing advantages over BDCs ( Chan & Pollard, 2003 ).

Consequently, with regard to business intelligence, while BDCs will be more interested inknowing what types of products and services to offer, BMCs will be more interested inunderstanding how to extend their ofine business to online settings. The impact of product/servicesuperiority will be more pronounced for BDCs compared to BMCs, as BDCs are relatively lessknown. With regard to technological competence, BMCs will need to invest in related technologiesmore, as BDCs are likely to be more technologically competent than BMCs. The importance of exibility will be more highlighted for BMCs, as these traditional companies need to makesignicant changes in their current operations. With respect to integrated strategies, BDCs will needto create more supporting back-ofce functions compared to BMCs, as BMCs will already havethem in place. Finally, with regard to relationships, BDCs will again need to invest more in suchrelationships compared to BMCs, as BMCs will already have established relationships.

Market conditions can also impact BMCs and BDCs. The legal environment will affect themequally, as they all need to follow the regulations. In terms of the competitive environment, BDCswill need to create a new market for their business while BMCs will need to extend their ofinebusiness to the online arena. With respect to the technological environment, because BMCs willusually be less technologically competent than BDCs they will need to understand the changes in

the environment more and possibly partner with other technologically capable rms. Finally, withregard to the social and cultural environment, while BDCs will need to be cognizant of the socialand cultural sensitivities of their target customers, BMCs will need to pay attention to the socialand cultural characteristics of their both ofine and online customers.

10. Conclusion

This paper has shown that the performance of an online business may depend on its ability tocollect and use business intelligence, deliver superior products/services, maintain a technological

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competence, use exible strategies, integrate the online business with the other functions in therm, and to build relationships with suppliers, distributors, customers, and other complementarybusinesses. The paper has also suggested that rms need to pay attention to potential pitfallsassociated with these factors. Namely, rms rst need to emphasize quality when gatheringbusiness intelligence. In addition, as the Internet changes so rapidly, todays superior products/services might not be seen as such tomorrow unless rms constantly improve them. Furthermore,rms need to establish a balance between technological competence and the human aspects of thetechnology to be more competitive. There is, moreover, a danger of following exible strategieswhile overlooking the control and quality aspects of an online business. Besides, when rms try tointegrate their online businesses with the other functions in the rm, they need to ensure that theironline strategies are shared and supported by the whole rm. Finally, the success of buildingrelationships with others depends on the capabilities of the parties involved and their willingnessto support such associations.

The framework presented in this paper may offer insights to managers, Internet consultants,webmasters, and people who design and maintain Internet sites for companies. As the Internetenvironment becomes more and more complex and uncertain, understanding the numerouselements affecting the success of online businesses can help them consider relevant factors andthus improve the quality of their strategic decisions. This study is, however, just one attempt toidentify factors affecting the success of online businesses. There could well be other factors andfuture studies to investigate them.

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Muammer Ozer is an associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. He holds BS and MS degrees inEngineering from the Istanbul Technical University and a Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from the Universityof Pittsburgh. His papers in the areas of information technology, technology management and the interface betweeninformation technology and new product development have appeared in a number of leading international journals.

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