An Analysis of E-Business Adoption and its Impact on Business Performance

Across industries, firms have adopted e-business to better manage their internal business processes, as well as their interfaces with the environment. However, little is known about (1) the variations in e-business adoption patterns across businesses, (2) the antecedents of such variations, and (3) the impact of e-business adoption on performance outcomes. In this study, a unified framework that captures the antecedents, patterns, and outcomes of e-business adoption is proposed and empirically tested using data collected from senior managers in four technology-intensive industries. Applying a framework that captures the intensity of e-business adoption across four business process domains, we find that the antecedents and performance implications of e-business adoption are best studied in a process-specific context. We find, for example, that while the communication and internal administration aspects of e-business positively impact performance outcomes in the studied industries, the more high-profile activities related to online selling and e-procurement do not. Our findings provide the foundation for a more rigorous study of e-business