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e eí al./Organizalional Assimilation oí Web Technoiogies

SHAPING U P FOR E-COMMERCE:

INSTITUTIONAL ENABLERS OF THE

ORGANIZATIONAL ASSIMILATION OF

WEB TECHNOLOGIES^

iy: Debabroto Chatterjee Department of Management Information

Systems Terry College of Business University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 U.S.A. dchatte@terry.uga.edu

Rajdeep Grewal Department of Marketing Smeal Coiiege of Business Administration Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-3007 U.S.A. rug2@psu.edu

V. Sambamurthy Accounting and Information Systems Broad College of Business Michigan State University Eat Lansing, Ml 48824 U.S.A. smurthy@msu.edu

Abstract

The global reach of the Web technological platform, along with tiie range of services (bat it supports, makes it a powerful business resource. However, realization of operational and strategic benefits is contingent on effective assimilation of this type III IS innovation. This paper draws upon institutional tbeory and the conceptual lens of structuring and metastructuring actions to explain the importance oftbree factors—top management championship, strategic investment rationaie. and extent of coordination—in acbieving higher levels of Web assimilation witbin an orgariization. Sur- vey data are utilized to test a nomological network of relationships among these factors and tbe extent of organizational assimilation of Web tech- nologies.

Keywords: Web technology. Web implemen- tation. IT management, innovation assimilation, structuring actions, metastructuring actions

ISRL Categories: UF. AI 0104. DA, GA

Introduction I The potential of Web technologies to transform business models, organizationai structures and

^-'=...'..^OuanerlyVol. 26No 2. pp 65-89/June 2002

Chatlerjee el aUOrganizaiionaí Assîmilalion of Web Techr -

processes, and the ecosystem of inler-firm rela- tionships wilh customers, suppliers, and other business partners is now universally acknowl- edged (Burdick 2000: Chatterjee and Segars 2001; Roberts 1999), E-commerce, or the appli- cation of Web technologies for understanding customer needs, marketing products, services, and product-market solutions, and taking custo- mer orders, has emerged as a significant impera- tive in contemporary firms. As exemplars of success, firms such as Cisco, Charles Schwab, General Electric, USAA, and Cemex have sensi- tized incumbent firms to the strategic value and the competitive necessity of assimilating Web technologies in their salient business strategies and value chain activities.

However, not all firms have been uniformly successful in assimilating Web technologies for shaping their e-commerce initiatives {Brews 2000; Haley et al. 1996), Web technologies are com- plex and offer a variety of functionalities ranging from the static presentation of content to the dynamic capture of transactions with provisions for security and personalization (Chatterjee and Sambamurthy 1999; Cronin 1996). Therefore, firms must make sense of these technologies and decide how to draw upon their functionalities for developing e-commerce initiatives. These initia- tives could range from static product catalogs to active, dynamic, and interactive solution develop- ment and virtual community networking and mar- keting. The assimilation of Web technologies requires a deep understanding of technology capabilities; such in-depth understanding is critical to identifying novel Web-enabled marketing and customer relationship management practices.

Further, the effective assimilation of Web tech- nologies requires their integration into existing organizational work processes and this might necessitate changes to current technologies and work processes (Chatterjee and Segars 2001; Keen and McDonald 2000). Actions by senior management or technology champions to unfreeze the prevailing institutional structures, introduce complementary structures to facilitate technology use, and reinforce norms that value the use of the technology are all likely to

encourage the use of the technology (Kwon anrf"'^ Zmud 1987), However, not many firms succeed \i^ orchestrating the co-evolutionary changes to thei/"^ technologies-in-use, organizational structures'^ processes, and incentive and reward systems to^ successfully assimilate Web technologies inloi^ their e-commerce initiatives.

Therefore, concerted institutional efforts arei*" required to blend technology, marketing, and*^'' business strategy knowledge and mutually adaptĴ '̂ ^ the organizational processes and features in shaping e-commerce initiatives, G a wide range of experiences with the E assimilation of Web technologies, there is a m to discover howfirms can institutionallyencourageiEiS the managerial activities that will result in greaterÈi*«̂ levels of technology assimilation. Our researchist motivated by the goal of examining what organi-iBJ¡Íj|e zational factors influence the assimilation of Web;* îe technologies for e-commerce initiatives in firms,tiferci Adopting the firm as the unit of analysis, wen^ examine the impacts of specific institutional factors on the extent of assimilation of Web I nologies into e-commerce strategies andad in firms. The next section describes the tt tical foundations and develops the stud/Siî ii research hypotheses. Then, the methodclogyandujj results are described. Finally, the article con-ŝ eludes with a discussion of the study's limitationsiĵ and future research implications, lij-

Theoretical Development ^ ^ • [ ^ ' ' ^

Perspectives on Assimilation '^^^^

Assimilation is defined as the extent to which Ihe ^^ use of a technology diffuses across organizational _^ work processes and becomes routinized in ̂ 6 ""/,! activities associated with these processes ̂ fÉrï (Cooper and Zmud 1990; Fichman and Kemerer'*3cf 1997; Tornatzky and Klein 1982), Assimilation is '^ko an important construct in the causal chain of "̂ Ès influence from the organizational adoption of an^'^jj information technology to the evidence of its ^ ^ impacts on business performance (DeLoneand í̂ü^ McLean 1992: Jarvenpaa and Ives 1991; % Ï .

MIS Ouanerly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002

..,ee el al./Organizational Assimiiation of Web Technologie.

' Mahmaod and Soon 1991; Sethi and King 1994).

' ojrphenomenon of interest is the extent to which

Web technologies are incorporated into e-

commerce strategies and activities aimed at mar-

keting, advertising, and selling products and

' services to customers.

Ttieories cf technology assimilation suggest that

most information technologies exhibit an

"assimilation gap"—i.e., their rates of organiza-

tional assimilation and use lag far behind their

rates of organizational adoption (Fichman and

Kemerer1999). Therefore, lessons learned about

the assimilation of prior information technologies,

' such as CASE, object-oriented development, and

relational databases, could be extended toward

understanding how firms promote the assimilation

ot Web technologies. However, the assimilation

of Web technologies is more challenging in

• contrast with other information technologies

because of differences in the dynamics of their

. organizational assimilation.

Swansons (1994) taxonomy of IS innovations

" suggests that information technologies undergo

three distinct pathways of organizational adoption

and use. He describes Type I innovations as

process innovations within the IS function, where

.•information technologies are assimilated to

enhance the efficiency or effectiveness of the IS

function. For example, firms have invested in

CASE, relational database, and object-oriented

technologies to enhance the effectiveness of the

IS function in systems delivery. Type II innova-

•'lions refer to the use of IS products and services

tor enhancing the administrative work processes

'• of firms. The assimilation of office productivity,

groupware, or decision support tools in specific

organizational tasks is an instance of Type II

innovations. Finally, Swanson describes Type III

.• innovations as information technologies that have

sttategic relevance for firms because their

¡itegration into the core business processes or

strategies could directly impact financial perfor-

iiance. The introduction of MRP systems, airline

reservation systems, and computer integrated

nianufacturing solutions are examples of such

ŷpe III innovations. Consistent with Swanson's

taxonomy, the assimilation of Web technologies

for e-commerce initiatives is a Type III innovation, where the focus is upon the integration of Web technologies in customer-facing strategies and activiiies.

Prior IS research has sought to examine antecedents of the assimilation of Type I IS innovations (for example, Purvis et al. 2001) and Type II IS innovations (for example, Agarwal and Karahanna 2000; Taylor and Todd 1995). In con- trast, limited attention has been devoted toward the assimilation of Type III IS innovations. We conjecture that there are two distinct reasons why the assimilation of Type II! innovations such as Web technologies deserves investigation. First, each one ofthe types of IS innovation operates at a different unit of analysis: whereas Type I inno- vations occur within the IS function, Type 11 innovations are exhibited at the individual user or work group level. In contrast. Type III innovations occur at the organizational level of analysis because they reflect firm-wide actions in inte- grating the information technology into strategies, activities, and processes.

Second, the assimilation of Type III innovations requires the mobilization of attention and coordination of actions across a wider group of stakeholders than is the case for Type I or Type II innovations. With Type I innovations, the key stakeholders are mostly the members of the IS function. With Type II innovations, the key stake- holders are members of a work group or department. The assimilation of Type III innova- tions, such as Web technologies for e-commerce activities, appears to be guided by a distributed leadership model (Agarv̂ ial and Sambamurthy 2002; Cronin 1996). Senior management, busi- ness executives, and IS executives are collectively responsible for shaping e-commerce initiatives. The needed intensity of interactions and colla- borations among these managers is much more severe in the case of the assimilation of Web technologies for e-commerce initiatives.

Therefore, the prevailing perspectives on techno- logy assimilation have two implications for our research. First, consistent with the perspective of Type Ili innovations as related to integration of IT

M/S Quarterly Vol 26 No. 2/June 2002

atierjee et al./Organizationai Assimilation of Web Techn .^

into organizational strategies and processes, we conceptualize web assimilation along two dimen- sions: e-commerce strategies and e-commerce activities. The strategies dimension refers to the extent of use of web technoiogies to enable and shape marketing and customer-oriented strategies (for example, attracting new customers). In con- trast, the activities dimension refers to the use of Web technologies for specific marketing or customer-facing activities (for example, dissem- inating product/service information or managing oniine payments by customers). Together, these two dimensions reflect the extent of organizational assimilation of Web technologies in e-commerce initiatives. Higher assimilation of Web techno- iogies refers to greater use of these technoiogies in e-commerce strategies and activities.

Second, consistent with Purvis et a!., we propose that the organizational assimilation of Type Ml innovations such as Web technologies is a cumu- lative consequence of the actions of managers and deparfments across the enterprise. Higher levels of organizational assimilation will be achieved when a larger proportion of the individual assimiiation initiatives are targeted at the enter- prise business strategies and value chain activities. Therefore, organizations can foster higher levels of technology assimilation by shaping, influencing, and motivating individual manageriai attention, cognition, and behaviors toward more assimilation initiatives across the enterprise (Van de Ven 1986). Whereas assimi- lation itself is the cumulative result of actions by individuals and units within the firm, these actions are stimulated by an organizational milieu of norms, values, and rules.

Structuration Theory of Technology Assimilation

The structuration theory of technology assimilation provides an appropriate foundation for our investigation of how institutional or organizationai factors infiuence individual initiatives and, thereby the assimilation of Web technologies. The roots of this theory iie in the basic institutional theory that describes how firms act as institutions in

shaping the behaviors and cognitions oí indií viduals within. Institutional theory (Scott 1995¡|j see also Orlikowski 1992) identifies three ways irrs which the organizations influence individual'; cognition and behaviors:

1. Structures of signification, whereby prevailing institutional structures yield meaning and understanding. Individuals - apply these structures as cognitive -. guides to understand how they should ,: behave/act with respect to new techno- j logy assimilation.

2. Structures of legitimization, whereby , prevailing institutional structures vali- , date specific behaviors as being appro- , priate in the organization and consis- tent with the goals and values of the organization. Individuals draw upon these structures as normative tem- plates to reassure themselves about the organizational legitimacy of their assimilation actions.

3. Structures of domination, whereby institutional structures regulate individual [ actions and behaviors. Individuals draw upon these structures to ensure that their assimilation actions do not violate instifu- tional rules and to avoid being the target [ of organizational sanctions.

Orlikowski et al. (1995) argue that individuals, utilize these institutional structures of signification, legitimization, and domination to make sense oí the technology, garner the resources needed to infuse it Into work processes, business activities, and strategies, and undertake the improvisational actions needed to assimilate the technology. These assimilation actions are refened to as structuring actions.

Orlikowski et al. also argue that senior manage- ment can manipulate the institutional structures of signification, legitimization, and domination and, thereby, influence, guide, motivate, or alter indivi- dual structuring actions. These organizationai actions are called metastructuring actions

MiS QuBfieriy Voi. 26 No. 2/June 2002

e el al./Organizational Assimiialion ol Web Technologies

they either reinforce the existing

s l structures or alter those structures to

.̂create conditions more conducive to technology

assimiialion. Examples of metastructuring actions

¡nclude senior management advocacy, incentives

and rewards, and expficitly articulated visions and

.mándales fot technology use (Orlikowski et ai.

1995; Purvis et ai. 2001). For exampie, through

advocacy, senior management can articulate a

"neworganizational vision that regards information

lechnoiogy to be strategic. This in turn, introduces

a new structure of signification whereby indivi-

duals start recognizing the strategic connections

between the technology and business initiatives.

Similarly, byarticulatingtheirviews about the risks

and benefits of an information technology, senior

managementcan legitimize assimilation behaviors

toward a new information technology. If senior

management focuses attention primarily on the

risks, then they are signaling their skepticism

about the technology, This signai, in turn, is iikely

lodampen structuring actions and, thereby, lower

assimiiation. Finally, by mandating rules and

policies about the assimilation of a technology,

senior management can alter the prevaiiing

sln;ctures of domination and either encourage or

deter individual structuring actions.

Drawing upon these ideas in the structurational

theory of technoiogy use, we propose that assi-

miiation is the outcome of individual structuring

actions. Further, we identify three significant

metastructuring actions—top management cham-

pionship, strategic investment rationale, and

extent of coordination—as institutional enablers of

ttie technology structuring actions of individuals

and, thereby, the assimilation of Web

leciinologies.' The specific institutional structures

of signification, legitimization, and domination

Readers should note that we describe structuring and fietastnjclurirg actions as theoreticaî concepts thai undergitd our research model. The model itself shows Mnstnjcis ihat are visible manifestations of these Itieoretical concepts; assimilation (for strjoturing sellons) and top management advocacy, strategic investment rationale, and exlent of coordination (for metastructuring actions). This approach is consistent with Purvis et al. (2001 )

provide the theoretical connection between the

metastructuring actions and the individual struc-

turing actions and, thereby, the extent of assi-

milation. Through their influence on these institu-

tional structures, metastructuring actions are anti-

cipated to impact the level of Web assimilation.

The following sections elaborate upon ourconcep-

tual model (Figure 1 ) and present rationale for the

anticipated pathways of effects.

Web Assimilation

Web assimilation is the extent of organizational

use ofweb technologies in facilitating e-commerce

strategies and activities. Our definition focuses on

the relative success of firms (as compared to

other firms in the industry) in incorporating the

Web technology into its e-commerce strategies

and activities. This definition is consistent with

perspectives on Type 11! IS innovations, with

earlier treatments of IT assimilation at the

organizational level (Armstrong and Sambamurthy

1999), and refiects our interest in understanding

firms as innovation systems for attaining

differential levels of technology assimilation

success (Fichman 2001). We regard the ievel of

assimilation to be one of the visible outcomes of

the stream of structuring actions across the firm.

Further, we anticipate the differential level of

assimilation success across firms to be linked to

the nature of the institutional enablers or the

metastructuring actions within those firms.

E-commerce strategy assimilation is a visible

consequence of structuring behaviors to utiiize the

web technologies in strategies for attracting new

customers, creating new distribution channels,

and offering value-added customer services. The

global reach of web technologies enables cost

efficient means of reaching out to new markets,

attracting new customers, and delivering products

and services. As an illustration, LIGHTNING

Instrumentation SA, a Swiss networking equipment

manufacturer, was abie to raise its sales by about

20% after establishing a Web site, all of which

came from outside its domestic market (Queich

and Klein 1996). News and information services

MIS Quarterly Vol. 26 No. 2/Jur>e 2002

Chatíerjee et al./Organaalionai Assimilalion of Web Tech!]..

Web Experience

Organizational Agi

Industry Type

Figure 1. The Conceptual Model for this Reseai

companies, such as Dow Jones Inc. and Hccver Inc., are using web technologies to deliver custo- mized news services to their customers. Firms are also trying to differentiate themselves by utilizing the Web technologies' transactional support capabilities to provide value added cus- tomer support services. Federal Express and United Parcel Service (UPS) provide interactive customer support, whereby customers have direct access to real-time information. Customers are able to determine transit times and pricing details, place orders, make payments, and track delivery of the shipment {Radosevich 1996),

Web technologies also offer companies an opportunity to make a positive impression on their existing and future customers. Companies are seizing this opportunity to create and enhance their corporate image. For instance, automotive manufacturers such as Ford and Honda present information relating to various community-support activities on their Web site.

E-commercG activity assimilation describes the use of web technologies for enabling customer-

facing activities, including product or seruice sales, distribution, and after-sales support, and = product testing, and market research (Chatterjee ;t and Sambamurthy 1999). While e-commerce i" strategy provides the guiding vision for use of ̂ Web technologies, these strategies are executed a through specific activities. Therefore, the assimi- Ï lation of Web technologies in specific activities is { another important aspect of e-commerce initia- f tives in firms. i

Top Management Championship

Drawing upon the work of Barki and Hartwictf ^ (1989) and Jarvenpaa and Ives (1991 ), we define j ^ , top management championship in terms of mana- ^̂ gerial beliefs about Web initiatives and participa- ¡^ tion in those initiatives. Top management cham- pionship is a metastructuring action because it defines institutional norms and values regarding ,̂ how managers should engage in structuring ^^ actions related to the Web technology. Through their beliefs, top management can offer visions , and guidelines to managers in departments and ^

M/s Quarterly Vo! 26 Wo 2/June 2002

Ctiatterjee et a¡./Organizational Assimitation oí Web Tectinologie.

]!̂ usiness units about the opportunities and risks in

' • esimiiating the Web technologies (structures of

ïljigriification)- In firms where top managers

, elieve that Web technologies offer a strategic

opportunity, their beliefs serve as powerful signals

jiherestof the managerial community about the

nportance placed on web assimilation. Further,

irough their beliefs and participation, top

lanagement can legitimize the willingness of

lanagers to expend their time and energy in

.-laking sense of the Web technology, exploring

lays in which the technology s functionality could

• le leveraged into the business processes and

iclivilies, and justifying the viability of specific

Í Veb-oriented projects (i.e., structures of legitimi-

:allon). When top management actively partici-

""lates in shaping the vision and strategies for the

jseof the web technologies, their actions serve

is powerful signals to the rest of the managerial

_:ommunity. Together, these beliefs and participa-

Bion actions shape the institutional structures of

Signification and legitimization influence the struc-

luring actions of individual managers, groups, and

departments.

-The IT literature is replete with studies that

-reinforce the importance of top management sup-

-port for IT assimilation. Studies have demon-

"Strated Ihe significance of both executive beliefs

- (Bean et al. 1975; Meador et al-1984) and execu-

tive participation for IT assimilation (Garrity 1963;

.-Lane 1985; Vanlommel and De Brabander 1975).

- Purvis et al, proposed and found evidence for the

significant role of top management championship

as a metastructuring enabler of IT assimilation.

Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

HI Top management championship wiil

positively influence extent of organi-

zationat assimilation of Web techno-

iogies in e-commerce strategies and

activities.

Strategic Investment Rationale for Web Projects

Another metastructuring action is the articulation

of a strategic investment rationale for Web initia-

tives. Strategic investment rationale is defined as

value propositions that will guide the identification

of promising organizational opportunities and

justification of resource commitments toward the

implementation of those projects. The strategic

investment rationale provides an institutional pers-

pective on how Web-oriented projects should be

justified, funded, and legitimized. Particularly in

the case of Type III IS innovations such as Web

technologies, a well-developed strategic rationale

not only signals the importance of applying explicit

justification logic but also identifies a variety of

criteria through which the projects could be justi-

fied. The existence of a well-developed strategic

investment rationale provides powerful templates

of signification to guide managerial attention

toward different projects that could leverage the

functionalities of Web technologies in business

processes and strategies. Such a rationale is

formulated and articulated by senior management

as a means for directing the attention of the rest of

the managerial community toward appropriate

ways of assimilation of Web technologies in the

firm. By stating explicit investment criteria, senior

management can influence the prevailing struc-

tures of legitimization and domination. Studies in

both the organization innovation and IT literature

have found that a well-developed rationale is more

likely to enable firms to assimilate technological

innovations (Dougherty and Hardy 1996; Samba-

murthy and 2mud 1996; Van De Ven 1986).

According to Dougherty and Hardy, organizations

that assign a strategic value to their innovation

efforts are likely to succeed in effectively

managing their innovation process (see also

Dougherty and Heller 1994).

Van De Ven (1986) also emphasizes the impor-

tance of such strategic value creation in the

context of building an organization culture that

supports and fosters innovation efforts. Samba-

murthy and Zmud (1996) found that firms

succeeded in assimilating IT innovations by deli-

berately articulating and promulgating a rich,

diverse, and explicit strategic rationale to guide

theirmanagers'sense-making actions. Therefore,

we offer the following hypotheses:

H2: A weil-developed explicit strategic

investment rationale wili positively

MIS Quarterly Vol 26 No. 2/June 20Q2

Chatterjee el al /Organizalional Assimilalion of Web Technologies

influence exlent of organizational

assimilation of Web technologies in

e-commerce strategies and

activities.

Extent of Coordination

Earlier, we identified a distributed leadership

model for shaping e-commerce initiatives in firms,

particularly for Type III IS innovations. Since

multiple managers influence e-commerce assimi-

lation and they are likely to possess varying

interpretations about the role and value of Web

technologies, firms must shape consensus around

applications or projects that will focus Web

deployments on strategic drivers and priorities.

Coordination theory suggests that managerial

judgments and actions across the enterprise can

be linked through the use of a variety of

coordination mechanisms, ranging from standard

operating procedures, liaison roles, and task

forces to oversight teams (Galbraith 1974;

Mohrman 1993). Each one of these mechanisms

has its unique strengths, and frequently an

organization is found to use a combination of

formal and informal integrative mechanisms to

manage its work activities (Galbraith 1974;

Tushman and Nadler 1978; Van De Ven et al.

1976 ). We consider the implementation and use

of these coordination mechanisms to be meta-

structunng actions because their use promotes

values of collaboration, sharing of risks, and

partnering {Brown and Sambamurthy 2001 ;

Henderson 1990). Grant (1996) argues that these

mechanisms are vital to the sharing and

integration of distributed knowledge and cognition

across firms. Such knowledge integration is a

distinct organizational capability underlying the

differential success enjoyed by firms in technology

assimilation. Particularly in the context of Web

assimilation, coordination is required to blend

business and IT knowledge as well as the knowl-

edge resident in different functional units of the

firm. Without such knowledge integration, firms

are unlikely to attain differentia! success in

technology assimilation. Studies of ITassimilation

point to the significant role of business and IT

knowledge integration and partnerships between

managers across the firm (Armstrong

Sambamurthy 1999; Boynton et al. 1994; N

and Cooprider 1996).

We anticipate the assimilation of Web techno.*

logies to be influenced by use of coordinatior̂

mechanisms. For instance, the use of a liaison"

department to coordinate Wefa implementation'

activities across organizational sub-units has'

proven to be effective in Sony Inc. More speci-

fically, the Sony Technologies Divisic

sible for providing Web-related infrastructure"

services—^like maintenance of servers, updating of

Web contents, etc,—to the individual product'

divisions (Cronin 1996). According to Marken

(1995, p. 36}, "for a Web site to be a strategic and;

tactical tool, the organization needs to establish a

Web team and not just a Webmaster, The team

needs to involve tS (information services},'

marketing, engineering, advertising, public rela-'

tions, and customer service." This

approach to managing the innovation process also'

finds theoretical support in the literature. Van De"'"'™

Ven (1986) suggests that the best way o f ^ "

managing complexity associated with the inno- , -,

vation process is to create synergy by involving '

the best-qualified people to perform certain • ^

specific tasks and then to integrate their activities . _ ^

to establish a certain redundancy, Clark and ̂ " • '

Wheelwright (1996) found that the use of certain ;''•;

types of team structures predominated when il" "

came to facilitating new process and product

development activities. ¿ ^

ÉÎÈSi

Finally, in reference to our theoretical view of the

use of coordination mechanisms as meta-

structuring actions, the implementation of coordi-

nation mechanisms alters the structures of signifi-

cation by allowing for greater coupling of

marketing and business knowledge. These coor-

dination mechanisms allow managers to develap

integrative knowledge necessary for undertaking

structuring actions aimed at assimilating the Web

technologies in e-commerce strategies and

activities. Further, the implementation of these

coordination mechanisms legitimizes collaboration

and sharing of knowledge and perspectives

among executives with marketing, customer, and

technology knowledge (i.e., structures of legiti-

MIS Quarterly Vol. 26 Wo 2/June 2002

e el al./Organizational Assimilation of Web Technologies

niizalion). As a consequence, these altered struc- tures influence assimilation actions of individual managers. Collectively, we hypothesize that:

H3: Extent of use of coordination mecha- nisms witi positiveiy influence extent of organizational assimilation of Web ¡echnologies in e-commerce stra- tegies and activities.

• Control Variables

Beyond the constructs depicted in our research model in Figure 1, other contextual factors could also influence organizational IT assimilation. -Among the salient ones are organizational age, industry type, and the extent of experience in •LSing Web technologies (Web experience}. Organizational age could have a negative impact 01 web assimilation because older firms have entrenched structures of signification, legitimi- zation, and domination, Metastructuring actions to promote cognitions, norms, and rules that promote web assimilation might be less effective because of the structural inertia associated with organiza- tional age, Oider organizations are likeiy to favor status quo (DiMaggio and Poweli 1983; Hannan and Freeman 1984), Therefore, a negative relationship is expected between the age of the organization and Web assimilation- Industry type represents another important control variable affecting the level of Web assimilation. Although Web technologies provide opportunities to conduct many of the traditional physical value chain activities in cyberspace, the extent of substi- tution potential differs between manufacturing and service-oriented industries (Rayport and Sviokia 1995¡. For instance, while the manufacturer of a physical product such as an automobile or apparel canconductonlycertain value chain activities (like marketing, customer support services, and fecruiting) over the Web, a financial services firm 'S able to conduct a more extensive set of activities that include marketing, sales, order pro- cessing, delivery, customer support services, and recruiting. Thus, service-oriented firms seem to be at an advantage when it comes to making extensive use of this new business platform.

Finally, Web experience {i,e,, extent of experience in using the Web technology) represents another influence on web assimilation. The assimilation of web technologies is influenced by cumulative organizational learning and experience (Fichman 2001), Firms that have maintained a web presence for a prolonged period of time are likely to have gained the experience and insight about how to effectively use this new technological platform- In other words, the greater the time since Web adoption, the greater the likelihood of achieving a high level of maturity in using the technology. The importance of prior experience with IT is well documented in the literature (Karimi et ai. 1996; Weill and Olson 1989). Therefore, extent of web experience is likeiy to be positively associated with web assimiiation-

Research Design I

We adopted a field survey methodology for our study. The unit of analysis is the firm with the assimilation of Web into e-commerce strategies and activities being the phenomenon of inquiry. The sampling frame comprises all the corporate Web sites listed in the Hoover Inc's On-Line Directory of Corporate Web Sites (www.hoovers. com). This particular database was selected be- cause it provided links to over 2,000 corporate Web sites across 50 or more industries and because it has clearly defined selection criteria— all U,S, public companies and all U,S- private companies with sales over $500 million—for listing the company Web sites. Firms in both the manu- facturing and the sen/ices sectors were repre- sented in our sample, From this database, we ex- cluded companies that are in the business of developing information technologies; manufac- turers of computer hardware, computer software, and telecommunications equipment. This was done since the purpose of the study is to under- stand and to explain the variance in web assimila tion among organizations that are primarily IT users and not providers. As a net result, about 525 companies formed the sampling frame for the study.

M/S Quarterly VoL 26 Wo. 2/June 2002 73

Challerjee et alJOrganizational Assimilation of Web Technologies

Table 1. Summary Of Data Collection Methods And Data Soun

Research Variables

Web Assimilation - E-Commerce Activities

Web Assimilation - E-Commerce Strategies

Top Manag^'^^'^^ Championship

Strategic Investment Rationaie

Extent of Coordination

Organizational Age

Industry Type

Web Experience

Questionnaire B

Questionnaire A

Questionnaire B

Data Source

IS Executive

Senior Business Executive

Hoover's Company Profile

IS Executive

JNote: Two separate questionnaires were designed: Questionnaire A was designed to gather data fr a senior business executive, while Questionnaire B was designed to elicit responses from an IS executive. í In each firm, these two executives were identified as being closely allied with the firms' Web use efforts. '

As illustrated tn Table 1, two different respondents were tapped at each firm. Qne of the question- naires was designed to gather data from a senior business executive, whereas the other question- naire solicited responses from an IS executive. In each firm, these two executives were identified as being closeiy aliied with the firms' Web use efforts. Table 1 shows how we used the two respondents to gather data about the specific con- structs in our research model. Most of the data was collected during the five-month period from January 1997 to May 1997.

Prior to the study, knowledgeable academics and practitioners reviewed the questionnaires. We used these reviews to ensure that our items unambiguously captured the appropriate con- structs in our research model. The instruments were also pilol-tested to ensure that the questions were being properly interpreted and that the survey format was in order. HTML versions of the questionnaires were also developed to give poten- tial respondents the option of responding electron- ically. Incidentally, 85% of the responses were

received electronically. The overall response rate - was about 14%, with a total of 75 pairs of responses being available for our analyses. However, because of missing values, only 62 • pairs of responses were used for analyses.

Tables 2 and 3 show the types of businesses ' represented in the sample and the respondent . demographics. Of the firms in the sample, 88% were publicly held companies. The average sales of the sampled firms were about $3.3 billion and • the average number of employees was 21,235, Most of these firms have been in business fot more than 15 years. In other words, this sample comprises relatively iarge organizations that have been in business for quite some time. As shown in Table 3, the titles borne by the respondents varied from company to company. While Director and Vice President were the most common titles for the Questionnaire A respondents, Webmaster was the most common title for the respondents to Questionnaire B. Collectively, these respondents can be viewed as being appropriate sources o' data on the constructs of interest in this study.

74 M/s Quarterly Vol 26 No. 2/June 2002

Chalteijee et al./Organaalional Assimilation of Web Technologies

V Manufacturing Firms ~" Apparel

Automotive

-^Beverage

"- Fjrniture

7" Service-Oriented Firms " Banks

-^Financial services

Holels

^^ Publishing

^ Retail - Transportation services (both air a n d g r o u n d }

5 2

6 1

Table 3. Respondent Demographics

Questionnaire Type

Respondent Title

Director

Vice President

Marketing Manager

Chief Executive Officer

Corporate Communications Manager

Others

Webmaster

Internet Manager

IS Manager

Others

Percentage

Construct Operationalization

Web Assimilation. E-commerce activity assimi- lation was measured by asking respondents to fale the relative success of their firm (relative to its fivals) in using Web technologies for different e- commerce activities. These activities included the creation of a demand for a product/service to its sales, delivery, and after-sales supporl. Other activities included product testing, market

research, and recruiting of personnel. In all, seven items were used to operationalize this construct (see the Appendix). E-commerce strategy assimilation was measured through five items to capture the extent to which companies were using Web technologies in shaping specific strategies (Appendix). These operationalizations are consistent with those used by other researchers (Armstrong and Sambamurthy 1999; Boynton etai-1994; Sethi and King 1994). Both

MIS Quarterly Vot 26 Wo. 2/Jü/ie 2002

Chslíerjee el al /Organizational Assimilation of Web Technologies

scales were found to be highly reliable

(Cronbach's Alpha = 0.80 for the strategy

assimilation and .79 for activity assimilation).

Top Management Championship was evaluated

along the dimensions of executive beliefs and

participation (Barki and Hartwick 1989; Jarvenpaa

and Ives 1991), Top management beliefs were

measured by asking respondents to rate the

extent to which they believed in the potential of the

Web to realize operational and strategic benefits.

Considering that security and consumer access

issues are likely to impede the effectiveness of

Web usage, top management were also asked

about their beliefs regarding these issues. A four-

item scale was used to tap executive beliefs about

the potential usefulness of the Web (Appendix).

Executive participation was operationalized by

asking respondents to rate the extent to which

senior management actively participated in the

management of Web initiatives. The practitioner

literature suggests that senior management must

be actively involved in Web planning-related acti-

vities—ranging from envisioning potential Web

usage to formulating plans and strategies to

translating such visions into reality. They should

also set standards and goals to monitor Web

projects(Engler1997;LaPlante1997). Therefore,

participation was operationalized by asking the

respondents to rate on a five point Likert scale the

extent to which the senior management of the firm

actively participated in the following planning and

monitoring activities; (1) articulating a vision for

the organizational use of the web technologies,

(2) formulating a strategy for the organizational

use of the web technologies, and (3) establishing

goals and standards to monitor web projects.

Both scales were found to be highly reliable

(Cronbach's Alpha = .93 for participation and .80

for beliefs). Taken together, we view executive

beliefs and participation as reflective indicators of

top management championship because the exis-

tence of favorable beliefs and high levels of parti-

cipation together are indicative of high levels of

championship.

StratGgic Investment Rationale was measured

by identifying a variety of economic and non-

economic indicators for justifying IT investments

(Sambamurthy and Zmud 1996). Sambamurthy

life and Zmud found project champions of innovativaiii

IT applications selling their projects by Iinkin9,(;r

them to specific strategic drivers like customsr'

response time and reputation management.

Other studies in both the organization innovation-,•;

and IT literature have found that those crgari-,,

zations, which are driven by strategic rationale to ..

invest in innovations, are likely to be more ••

successful in exploiting them (Dougherty and,,;:

Hardy 1996; Van De Ven 1986). Therefore,-!

respondents were asked to rate the importance .

placed on each cnterion for justifying web-related -

projects {refer to the Appendix). Consistent with '.

our conceptualization, this construct was viewed

as a formative construct.

Extent of Coordination was measured in terms...,

of the use of different types of coordination.-,

mechanisms to manage Web initiatives. As dis-.,!,

cussed earlier, these mechanisms can take the ';.

form of processes, roles, or structural arrange-,.!!

ments to manage the Web initiatives. For, "

instance, designating an organizational memberto"

assume the role of Webmaster—and being

responsible for coordinating the cross-functional

development of business applications—is an.i î

example of a formal role-based mechanism for"^

coordinating Web efforts. Organizations can also

establish a formal group such as a steering

committee to monitor web-related activities. More-

over, to facilitate monitoring efforts, goals, plans

and procedures might also be set by the senior

executives of the organization. In addition to

formal structural arrangements such as teams, " ^

informal linking roles, like those of change agents, ''-^

can be effective in securing organization-wide " '̂i

support and cooperation in the diffusion of innova- - ^

tion (Rogers 1983). Brown and Sambamurthy^^

(2001 ) found that higher levels of coordination are ''S?

related to the use of many coordination mechar- "

isms in conjunction with each other. Further, indi-

vidual mechanisms possess strengths and weak- •-"•;

nesses in facilitating knowledge integration; there- %

fore, the use of a variety of mechanisms together 'is

is reflective of higher levels of coordination. \

Respondents were presented with descriptions of H

the different types of formal and informal ^is,

coordination mechanisms and asked to rate the "Hj

W'S Ouarlerly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002

et al./Organizational Assimilation oí Web Technologies

-' extent to which each one of these types was used

Î' 10 manage Web initiatives (Appendix). The scale

i:,eichiblted good reliability (Cronbach's Alpha of

^0.74).

Control Variables. Organizational age was mea-

.sured by asking the respondent to indicate the

number of years the firm had been in business

(Appendix). A five-point scale (0—0 to 5 years;

1-61010 years; 2—11 to 15 years; 3—more than

, 15 years] was used for the measures. Industry

lype was coded as a dummy variable by iden-

liiying Ihe nature of a firm's business (manu-

laclurmg or service) and then coding it as 0 for

manufacturing and 1 for service. This information

was gathered from Hoover's On-line Directory of

CorporateWebsites(www,hoovers.com). Finally,

Web experience was measured by asking respon-

denls lo indicate the length of time the company

" web site has been on the Internet (refer to the

; Appendix), A five-point scale {0-6 months; 7-12

months; 1-2 years; 2-3 years: more than 3 years}

'Data Analysis and Results ^ ^

Weused the two-step approach recommended by • Anderson and Gerbing (1988) to first assess the quality of our measures and then test the hypo- Iheses. Since the sample size is small compared ID Ihe scholarly recommendation to use a 10:1

• ralio of sample-size to number of parameters estimated, we estimated a separate confirmatory lacbr analytic model for each latent construct (Bollen 1989; Nunnally and Bernstein 1994). Discriminant validity was assessed through con-

" tirmatory factor analytic models with every pair of latent constructs (Anderson and Gerbing 1988).

li order to maintain the recommended bounds for Ihe ralio of sample size to number of parameters estimated, we estimated four confirmatory analy- sis models (Ihe scales that had three items were estimated with other scales to obtain the required error degrees of freedom); (1 ) web assimilation-

• e-commerce activities, (2) web assimilation- e-commerce strategies and strategic investment

rationale, (3) top management beliefs and partici- pation, and (4) extent of coordination. Low factor loadings, high standardized residuals, and high modification indices were used for measure purification (Kline 1998), Table 4 summarizes the results from the four measurement models. For the items retained in the model, the factor loadings were in the acceptable range {Nunnally and Bernstein 1994) and the goodness of fit indicators showed reasonable fit (Hair et al. 1995). The goodness of fit index, the normed fit index, comparative fit index, and the incremental fit index all show acceptable level of fitness for our mea- surement models. We carried out tests to verify whether the root mean square error of approxi- mation (RMSËA) values for our measurement models were statistically equal to or less than 0.05 as evidence of good model fit (Hair et al. 1995). As illustrated in Table 4, our results do not reject this null hypothesis concerning the RMSEA. Overall, we are satisfied that our measures exhibit acceptable levels of internal consistency.

Table 5 represents the means and standard deviations of the different constructs. To establish discriminant validity for the six constructs, we esti- mated 15 (̂ C )̂ confirmatory factor analytic models with two constructs in each model. None of the 15 O's was statistically equal to 1, thereby suggesting discriminantvalidityamong the constructs (Ander- son and Gerbing 1988), To assess non-response bias, we compared early respondents with late respondents for all constructs, including the control variables {Armstrong and Overton 1977). None of the t-statistics was statistically significant (p > 0.10, two-tail tests), thereby suggesting that non-response bias may not exist.

Hypothesis Testing

As we have both formative (e.g., strategic invest- ment rationale) and refîective (e.g., top manage- ment beliefs) indicators for constructs in the model, we used Partial Least Squares (PLS) (Sambamurthy and Chin 1994). PLS is also recommended for small sample size models, like ours. Figure 2 presents the estimates obtained from PLS, The R' value of 0,54 (p < 0.01 ) demon-

MIS Quarterly Vol. 26 No 2/June 2002

Ciiatterjee et al./Organizational Assimilation of Web T

Measurement Model

Web Assin E-Commer Activities

0,07 (p > 0-32)

Web Assimilation- E-Commerce Stra- tegies and Strategic Investment Rationale

Top Management Beliefs and Top

Participation

0,01 (p> 0,84)

Extent of Coordination 0,97 0.94 0,99 0,99

GFI—Goodness of Fit Index; NFI—Normed Fit Index; CFI—Comparative Fit Index; IFI— Incremental Fit' Index; RMSEA —Root Mean Square Error of Approximation,

^We report p-values for the null hypotheses of RMSEA <. -05 in parentheses. For our data, all RMSEA ^ values are statistically equal to 0,05 at 10% significance level, •

strates that the model explains a good amount of variance in Web assimilation. We find support for H1, wherein we expected top management cham- pionship to positively affect Web assimilations (b = 0-394, p < 0,01), As evident from the loadings for top management beliefs and partici- pation (Figure 2), both dimensions of top manage- ment championship were significant in the relationship, H2 is also supported such that a weil-deueloped strategic investment rationale leads to greater assimilation of the web (b = 0,176, p < 0.10). Interestingly, of the three indicators for this formative construct, the cost savings focus was the dominant Indicator (weight = .97, p < ,01) and the new opportunities focus was moderately important (weight =.40, p < ,10) (Figure 2), However, the third indicator, ROI, was not significant. This implies that the assimilation levels were primanly influenced by a well-

frc

eloped rationale that emphasized cost savings .. n Web technologies- -—

Finally, we find support for H3 where we hypothesized that extent of coordination would ^ positively impact Web assimilation (b = 0.270, p< "~ 0,01). Examining the loadingsfor the indicators in ^ Figure 2, it is evident that all of the indicators are; ^ significant. Thus,wefindsupportforallourhypo- t theses, "^

Discussion]

Although Web technologies possess a variety of functionalities for understanding customer needs, marketing products, services, and prod net-market solutions, and taking customer orders, not many

M/s Quanerly Vol. 26 No 2/June 2002

•„ ,,ryee eí al./Organizationai Assimilalion oí Web Technologies

Viieb Assimilation

-E-Commerce

Activities (WA)

[9 peint scale)

Web Assimilation

- E-Commerce

Strategies (WS)

[9 point scale)

Strategic

rivestment

Rationale (SR)

(5 point scale)

Extent of

Coordination (CO)

(5 point scale)

Top Management

Participation

(TMP)

¡5 point scale)

Top Management

Beliefs fTMB)

(5 point scale)

Organization Age

¡Oft]

(4 point scale)

Web Experience

(WE)

(5 point scale)

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Standard

Deviation

W A

0.33

8.35

3.56

1.86

MÜH WS

0.60"*

1.25

9.00

5.97

1.86

0,20

0 . 3 8 ' "

0.00

3.66

1.94

0,83

0 . 3 4 ' "

0 , 4 7 " '

0.12

0.00

3.40

2.00

0.76

T M P

0 . 4 2 " '

0 . 5 3 ' "

0 . 2 9 "

0.30*"

0.00

4.00

2.31

1.11

T M B

0 . 5 3 " '

0 . 5 8 " '

0 . 3 1 ' "

0 . 4 1 ' "

0.72"-

0.50

4.00

2.51

0.78

O A

-0,04

-0.20

-0.11

0,07

-0.15

-0,28"

0.00

3.00

2.72

0.75

W E

0.21

0.29"

0 . 4 3 " '

0.04

0.17'

0 . 2 9 ' "

0.01

0.00

4.00

2.08

1.08

•' p < .01; two-tail tests.

MIS Quanerly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002 79

Ctiatterjee et at./Organizational Assimilation of Web Tech... ....a.-^-

firms have succeeded in fully leveraging these functionalities in their e-commerce activities. Drawing upon Swanson's (1994) typology of IS innovations, we have argued that the assimilation of Web technologies in shaping e-commerce activities is an instance of Type 111 innovations. In such innovations, the assimilation goal lies in inte- grating information technologieswithin key organi- zational processes and activities. One of the pri- mary organizational challenges in realizing these goals includes the mobilization of enterprise-wide attention and action toward the use of Web tech- nologies in different customer-facing e-commerce activities. Our research seeks to examine what factors are likely to facilitate higher levels of assimilation of Web technologies in shaping e- commerce activities in firms.

We adopted an institutional perspective to develop our research model where assimilation is the cumulative result of myriads of structuring actions by individuals and units throughout the

enterprise. The structurational theory of techno-gjjj, logy assimilation argues that firms can influence ¡.g, these structuring actions and enhance assimi-ĝ lation through meta-structuring actions and struc- tures. Drawing upon prior theory and research, ^ we examined the impacts of three organizational '" factors upon the level of organizational assimila- ^̂"̂ tion of Web technologies in shaping e-commerce '^ activities; top management championship, stra- ^̂ tegic investment rationale, and the extent of ^ coordination. The results of our study suggest - that each one of these three factors is importani ~' for nurturing high levels of assimilation. Before -'̂ discussing the implications ofour research, abrief 'îl consideration of its limitations is appropriate, ^

First, the relatively small sample size is one •-. limitation of this study. Given that we succeeded -̂ in obtaining complete data only from 62 firms, i questions might be raised about the generali- ,? zability of the findings. However, our ability to i; capture data from multiple respondents should be ï;

M/S Quarterly Vol. 26 Wo. 2/June 2002

et al./Organizalional Assimilation of Web Technologies

viewed as compensating for the limited sample size. A second limitation of our study is its cross- seclional design. As a result, we are able to only

'" lest associations between constructs and not their causal relationships. Another limitation of the sludy is that it focused on examining specific insti- lutional enablers. There could be other contextual (actors influencing Web assimilation (Grover 1993; Kwon and Zmud 1987; Meyer and Goes 19B8). Future research could expand upon our findings by examining the influence of these allernative factors.

Notwithstanding these limitations, we believe that our study makes significant contributions to

, research and practice. First, although prior researcti has examined the factors impacting the

" assimilation ofType I or Type II innovations, there - has been a paucity of research on the assimilation

ot Type III innovations. Prior research has demonstrated the significance of top management championship for Type I or Type II IS innovations (e.g., Lewis et al. 2002; Purvis et al. 2001). Our

Iresearch suggests that top management cham-pionship continues to be important in encouraging Ihe assimilation of Type III innovations such as Web technologies. However, two other factors Itiat have not been examined in prior research

•' have been found to be significant antecedents; strategic investment rationale and the extent of coordination.

about its potential benefits, an ROl rationale might be less appropriate and desirable compared to an emphasis on cast savings or new opportunities (Sambamurthy and Zmud 1996).

Further, our research found that higher levels of coordination are significant in promoting the assimilation of Web technologies in e-commerce activities. We argued that the requisite expertise and authority for higher levels of assimilation of Web technologies in e-commerce strategies is distributed across firms. Coordination mecha- nisms are needed to blend the expertise of multiple executives from different departments and locations across the enterprise. However, individual coordination mechanisms have merits and weaknesses in facilitating the blending of expertise (Brown and Sambamurthy 2001 ). Therefore, the use of a portfolio of coordination mechanisms would be beneficial for promoting assimilation. Our results testify to the importance of using roles (e,g,, liason roles), groups {e.g., task forces and oversight teams), and processes {standard operating procedures and planning) together as portfolios in enhancing assimilation.

Overall, these findings tend to emphasize the importance of a planned and coordinated approach toward assimilation of Web technologies in e-commerce activities and strategies.

•" Our research suggests that the use of a strategic -• investment rationale has a significant influence on

Ihe level of assimilation of Web technologies in e- commerce activities. As we argued, a strategic investment rationale provides powertui templates for individual managers or units to apply as they

• attempt to make sense of how the functionalities ol Web technologies could be used in the firm.

^ We found an emphasis on the use of the Web for cost savings in activities such like marketing, laking customer orders, and understanding customer needs. Interestingly, an ROl rationale did not prove to be significant- We would expect an ROl rationale to direct managerial attention loward quantification of benefits for any proposed application of the technology. When dealing with

_ ^complex technology and encountering ambiguity

Contributions to Practice

Our findings also have important implications for managers involved in efforts to introduce complex technologies—such as Web technologies—into their firms. They reinforce the importance of insti- tutional factors such as top management advo- cacy, strategic investment rationale, and extent of coordination on the heightened levels of techno- logy assimilation. These findings testify to the col- lective responsibility of senior management, busi- ness executives, and IS executives in heightening their firms' technology assimilation success. While numerous advocates have prescribed such a collective responsibility as a normative guide- line, our research provides empirical support for this prescription. Beyond senior management

MIS Ouarterly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002

Chatterjee el al./Organizational Assimilation of Web Techr

advocacy, we also demonstrate the importance of articulating an explicit investment rationale and implementing coordination mechanisms to facili- tate the assimilation of Web technologies.

Future Research implications

This research sets the stage for future research in understanding the assimilation of Web techno- logy. Since this study was conducted during the early stages of Web diffusion, it would be interesting to reexamine the hypothesized rela- tionships at different points in time to see whether there are any changes in the nature of the relationships. Thus, using a longitudinal design to examine the relationships among the identified research variables might be a useful extension to the current study. Considering the logistical difficulties of collecting longitudinal data from senior business executives, a more feasible strategy would be to focus on a few companies and to gather data over a period of time. Such data could be collected through personal inter- views and case analyses. Further, to control for industry effects, it would be advisable to focus the study on a specific industry.

Other potential extensions of this study would include examining the effects of other contextual factors on the assimilation of Web technologies. As mentioned earlier, apart from organization- specific factors, there are other contextual factors (such as technological, user, and industry charac- teristics) that could influence the extent of assimilation of Web technologies.

Conclusion I

As more contemporary firms seek to transform theirvalue chain activities and business strategies through the assimilation of Web technologies, there is a desire to understand what factors are likely to promote heightened levels of technology assimilalion. Drawing upon the institutional theory perspectives, this research examines the signi- ficance of senior management advocacy, strategic investment rationale, and extent of coordination in

promoting greater assimilation. As one of the' ' earliest studies to examine the factors contributing^^^ to the assimilation of Web technologies, tiiisstudyl, [ serves to provide timely knowledge to researcheisi"- and practitioners interested in learning howfinns '' can facilitate more effective transformations to ö i e ^ Web-enabled business environments, Wehopef'"'̂ that our theoretical perspective and findings willf^^ stimulate and encourage more research intoUiislf*̂ * important phenomenon. [

Acknowiedgements lit-íf ifflEO

We are very grateful to llze Zigurs, the Senior i'iä?' Editor, for her guidance in enhancing the quality of lie* the manuscript. We are deeply indebted to the 'M Associate Editor, and the reviewers for theirgFs excellent comments and suggestions. We are, thankful to Bob Zmud. Joey George, Bruce ;I.Ï£ Lamont, and Charles Hofacker for their guidance isr,ii and feedback during the early stages of thê [̂{( research. We are also grateful to Florida State (^¡¡g, University for the dissertation research grant. t;™

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About the Authors

Debabroto Chatterjee (Dave) is an assistant professor in Management Information Systems In the Jerry College of Business at the University of Georgia. He received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1997. He also holds M.B.A., CA., and B.Com. degrees. His research interests lie at the interface between information technology and strategy. His primary areas of research are elec- tronic commerce, IT infrastructure management, and the role and value of IS leadership. His work has been accepted for publication In journals including MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, Journai of Management information Sys- tems, Electronic Markets, Information Rssourcs Management Journal, and Annals of Cases on Information Technoiogy. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Dave worked for several years in the industry. He still maintains close ties with the industry by working on various case study projects. Several Fortune 500 companies have served as sites for these field studies. He was awarded the prestigious Boeing Business Faculty Fellowship and conducted a high profile study on their merger initiative in 1998. One of his current research projects, titled "Transformation of the Enterprise Through eBusiness; An Investigation of Opportunities, Challenges and Best Practices," is being funded by the Advanced Practices Council of the Society for Information Manage- ment. Recently, he was nominated and selected for inclusion in the United Nations Panel of E- Commerce Experts.

Rajdeep Grewal is an assistant professor of Marketing at the Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University at University Park. He received his B.S. from Indian Institute of

MIS Quarterly Vol 26 No 2/June 2002

Chatterjee et al./Organizational Assimilation of Web Technoiuyies

Technology, New Delhi, India, an M.B.A. from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India, and an M,S, in Business Statistics and a Ph.D, in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati. He has previously taught at the Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. The theoretical focus of his research focus is on strategy, organi- zation theory, and intertirm relationships, with substantive work in e-commerce, multinational management, and economic crises. His work has appeared in premier journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology. Journal of Economic Psychology, and Journal of Business Research, among others. He has presented work at major conferences, including those of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and Marketing Science Institute and he is co-chair of the Marketing Strategy SIG track for the Summer 2002 AMA Educator's conference. He has been awarded research grants from the Marketing Science Institute, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, and the Direct Marketing Policy Center. His dissertation was awarded a compe- titive grant from the prestigious Procter & Gamble Market Innovation Research Fund.

V. Sambamurthy is Eli Broad Professor of Information Technology Management at the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1989. Previously, he was on the faculty of business schools at the University of Maryland and Florida State Univer- sity, His research interests lie at the intersection of information technology management, business strategy, and organization design and he examines how firms successfully leverage infor- mation technologies in their business strategies, products, services, and organizational processes. His research has been published in journals such as the MIS Quarterly. Information Systems Research, Decision Sciences. Management Science. Organization Science, and the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. Currently, he serves as the Senior Editor for MS Ouarterly, Departmental Editor for the IEEE Transactions of Engineering Management, and as Associate Editor for Information Systems Research and Management Science (both the Information Systems and the R&D, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship departments)-

,0 0»

itm

S).

M S Ouarlerly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002

Chatterjee el at./Organizational Assimilation of Web Technologies

Appendix

• Variable Measurement Scales I

?Web Assimilation (Dependent Varrabie)—E-Commerce Activities Dimension

Uoie and more companies are setting up their Web sites on the Internet to conduct business activities with

V ¡heil external stakeholders like customers, suppliers, and stockholders. Through these Web based busin-

-• ess initiatives, companies are also able to support and shape their business strategies. Questions 1 and

' 2are designed to tap into such organizationai uses of the WWW

Please indicate how extensively your corporate Web site (http://

is being used for the following business activities:

. 'a. Publishing company specific

facts/fgures

- b. Disseminating product/service

information

c. Receiving payments from

customers

d. Delivering products/services to

customers

e. Providing customer service

support

f. Testing products/services

g Conducting marketing surveys

Significantly

below industry

average

2 3

Above

industry

average

4 5 6

Significantly

above industry

average

'Items deleted after confirmatory factor analysis

MIS Ouarterly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002 87

Zhallerjee et al /OrganizaUonai Assimilation of Web T

i/Veb Assimilation (Dependent Variable)—E-Commerce Strategies Dimension

2. Please indicate how extensively your corporate Web site (http:// is being used to support each of the foliowing business strategies:

Significantly

a- Enhancing company image

h. Attracting new customers

c. Offering value-added customer services

d. Creating a new advertising ^ channel

•e. Creating a new distribution ^ channel

'Items deleted after confirmatory factor analysis-

Not

Applicable

below industry

average

industry a

verage

5 6

Significantly

Top Management Championship (Independent Variable)—Participation Dimension

3. Please indicate the extent to which the senior management of your firm actively participates in:

c, establishing goals and standards to monitor Web projects

Great Extent Very Great Extent

Top Management Championship (independent Variabie)—Beiiefs Dimension

4. Please indicate ttie extent to which the senior management of your firm beiieves in the following:

"°™ '"""'^ ^ ™ ^ ° ' " ' Very Great The WWW has the potential of providing significant business benefits fo the firm

b. The WWW will create a significant competitive arena for firms

c. The WWW is not a very secure medium to conduct business activities

d. The WWW is hot easily accessible to the existing and potential customers of firm

^°"^^ ^^^'^^ Very Great

Some Great Very Great

^"""^ °"^^' Very Great

MIS Qtiaiierly VoL 26 No. 2/Jvne 2002

e et al./Organizational Assirnilation of Web Technologies

""Strategic Investment Rationale (Independent Variable

•..J How are web related expenses justified in your organization? Please indicate the extent of importance placed on the following in justifying web related expenses in your organization,

' a meeting return on investment (ROI) criteria None Little Some Great Very Great

"b, new business opportunities rationale None Little Some Great Very Great

c. realizing cost savings None Little Some Great Very Great

Extent of Coordination (Independent Variable)

; 3rg3niiations often use a variety of coordination mecfisnisms to manage key business initiatives. Some Bxamples of such mechanisms are task farces, planning processes, etc.

5. Please indicate the extent to whioh existing coordination mechanisms of the following types are used to manage the Web initiative:

, Standard Operating Procedures (e.g., goals, policies, and plans)

; managers)

c Task Forces

d. Oversight Teams (e.g.. Business advisory council)

e. Planning Processes

None Little Some Great Extent Very Great Extent

Organizational Age {Control Variable)

7. Please indicate for how long has your company been in business:

0-5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years more than 15 years

Web Experience (Control Variable)

8' Please indicate for how long have you had the company Web site on the Internet.

0-6 months 7-12 months 1-2 years 2-3 years more than 3 years

MIS Quarterly Vol. 26 No. 2/June 2002

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