Examining whether highly e-innovative firms are more e-effective

Abstract

The resource-based view (RBV) ascribes superior firm performance to firm resources and capabilities. In recent years, much debate about the value of e-business has been raised because of the costly investments required. Although studies have found positive relationships between e-business and firm performance, there is a need to further investigate into these topics. Since innovation has become a key factor for increasing the competitiveness of firms and e-business has been proposed as complement to innovation, this paper analyses, based on the RBV perspective, whether companies with high level of Internet resources and with high e-innovation are more effective electronically. The methodology involved a large sample firms and data collected by the European e-Business Market Watch, an established e-business observatory sponsored by the European Commission. Results indicated that differences of e-sales effectiveness of firms with high and low Internet resources were not statistically significant, while on the contrary firms with a high level of e-innovation outperformed on e-sales effectiveness.