Scope of Information Technology in the improvement of Marketing

Table of Contents

Abstract3

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION4

CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND8

Conceptual model and hypotheses8

e-Marketing capability9

Customization13

Market orientation18

Technology orientation19

Moderating influences of competitive environment20

Relationships between e-Marketing capability and performance outcomes22

Moderating influences of environmental conditions24

CHAPTER 3. METHOD27

Data Collection Instrument27

Sample27

Measures28

Analytical strategy30

Evaluation of structural model and testing of hypotheses31

CHAPTER 4. RESULTS & ANALYSIS34

Limitations and areas for future research38

REFERENCES41

APPENDIX56

Abstract

This research examines the performance implications of integrating information technology with marketing capabilities and other firm-level resources. Specifically, this study introduces and empirically tests a model that conceptualizes e-Marketing as the integration of complementary technology, business and human resources that, when combined, positively influence firm performance. The results from a survey of 522 Belgian firms highlight the importance of how market and technology orientation leads to e-Marketing capability and that this capability is shown to positively influence firm performance by improving customer retention and satisfaction. The results suggest that researchers and practitioners should pay special attention to the complementary resources that are needed to successfully implement IT-enabled marketing initiatives and that an emphasis on the technology alone may not be sufficient.

Chapter 1. Introduction

Marketing managers have turned to information technology (IT) to cope with the ongoing challenge of getting more from marketing resources while simultaneously meeting greater expectations to establish durable relationships with customers. Recent studies suggest that organizations can improve customer acquisition and retention by integrating IT into their marketing practices to foster rich interactions with their customers ([Brodie et al., 2007] and [Coviello et al., 2001]). This assimilation of IT and marketing, commonly referred to as e-Marketing, encompasses a broad set of interaction-enabling technologies that are frequently used in industrial business-to-business (B2B) markets including customer relationship management (CRM) software, sales force automation (SFA), e-commerce websites, and extranets (i.e., private websites set up specifically for a customer). While researchers have presented empirical evidence that relates IT-enabled customer interactivity to firm performance ([Brodie et al., 2007] and [Wu et al., 2003]), there remains a gap in our understanding of how IT and marketing resources are combined to develop new capabilities. Given the pervasive use of IT within marketing today, it is critical to further expand our knowledge of the drivers of e-Marketing capability and how this capability has the potential to enhance firm performance and generate a competitive advantage.

The resource-based view (RBV) provides a sound foundation for examining how IT and complementary resources can be bundled to form advantage-generating capabilities (Wade & Hulland, 2004). While researchers have since used the RBV to examine IT-enabled marketing capabilities ([Lai et al., 2010] and [Nath et al., 2010]), to our knowledge little research grounded in the RBV has examined outside-in capabilities that connect a firm to its environment and foster strong relationships with customers. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to build from the foundation provided by past research on e-Marketing and extend this knowledge by examining e-Marketing as a dynamic firm-level capability. Furthermore, we examine the direct role of resource endowments on capability development as well as the interactive effects of these resources and the competitive ...