Interorganizational Relationships in the Context of SMEs' B2B E-Commerce

Abstract

Electronic commerce on the Internet has been discussed in literature as an interorganizational information system that can provide a strategic advantage via customer loyalty to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, that is not always true, because many SMEs have difficulties achieving the benefits, as suggested by media and early research. This study is an empirical examination of the impact of the Internet's Web tools on the interorganizational relationships (IOR) between SMEs and their loyal customers. Data collected from 386 SMEs in North America (United States and Canada) and processed with Partial Least Square (PLS) show that the use of Web tools (i.e., the level of Web content and the level of security on the Internet) has a positive impact on the relation between cooperation and interdependence, and customer loyalty. However, the impact of the Internet's Web tools on the relation between trust and customer loyalty is different, because the use of nonsecure Web tools reduces the impact of trust on customer loyalty, and surprisingly, the use of secure Web tools doesn't increase or decrease the impact of trust on customer loyalty. The implications of the results of the study are discussed.

Internet Technologies, ECRM Capabilities, and Performance Benefits for SMEs: An Exploratory Study

“…This finding corroborates prior research showing that SMEs which sell products or services on-line are able to better manage customer information and communication [25,77].…”

“…Despite the growing practical need for an understanding of CRM in the SME context, the role of information technology in SMEs' CRM activities (focused on the Internet-based technologies here termed eCRM) has received relatively little research attention (e.g., [32,77,96,112]). Much research, instead, primarily focuses on the CRM technology solutions pursued by large organizations, which tend to involve complex software applications and information systems [85,145].…”

“…Items measuring SME communication capability were also developed from the SME literature, drawing on the work of, among others, Boyle [17], Lawson-Body and O'Keefe [77], and Tan et al [133]. Items were designed to gauge the centrality of IT-based communication with SME customers [17].…”

“…Items were designed to gauge the centrality of IT-based communication with SME customers [17]. Items were adapted that measured the extent to which Internet technologies played a complementary role in developing customer relationships and the extent to which Internet technologies led to improvements in customer communication for SMEs [17,77].…”

“…A primary way in which SMEs do this is by utilizing strong face-to-face interactions with customers-a strategy recognized as costly and labor intensive [112]. As a result, an increasing number of SMEs have begun to use information technology as a supplement to the face-to-face strategy of managing customer relationships [77,96].…”