| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
In 2003, this paper received “The Excellence in Global Marketing Research Award” from the American Marketing Association’s Global Marketing SIG.
A substantial body of literature on export performance has been published over the past three decades. Despite this research, export performance has remained one of the least understood areas of international marketing (Katsikeas et al. 2000). What stands out in the export performance literature is the multiplicity of views with respect to determinants of export performance. Researchers in this field have argued that, to some extent, this can be explained by problems in conceptualising, operationalising, and measuring the export performance construct, often leading to inconsistent and even conflicting results (Walters and Samiee 1990; Axinn et al. 1996). Thus far, there is no model of export performance which is generally favoured in the literature (Zou and Stan 1998) and this fact creates an even greater challenge when it comes to integrating e-commerce into existing theories.
The use of e-commerce is growing. This development has created opportunities for exporters to improve current international operations and enhance export effectiveness. The diffusion of e-commerce based technologies requires firms to differentiate themselves and their products to establish or maintain relationships with their customers or partners. In order to be competitive, exporters need to employ technologies to develop low-cost customer-prospecting methods, efficient international trading processes, and close relationships with customers and partners around the world. Therefore, an understanding of the implications of e-commerce use in export operations is needed.
In economic terms, e-commerce redefines the relationships between buyer, seller, and intermediary in both domestic and international markets, allowing new ways of accessing and tapping information and price arrangements. Export firms are changing the way they operate and the markets in which they operate due to significant changes in time and spatial arrangements, and striking reductions in the cost of obtaining, processing, and transmitting information, as well as the concurrent information links within and between these firms. However, information technologies have also resulted in the disintegration of industrial structures, thus resulting in smaller firms, virtual organisations, and the increased interest in inter-organisational systems (Rockart and Short 1991).