工商管理专业外文翻译

外文文献原文及译文

E-commerce and corporate strategy:an executive perspective

Abstract

Despite the recent downturn in Internet-based business, the dollar value of electronic commerce(EC) transactions is increasing at an astounding rate. In consumer-to-business applications, the amount of money spent by online shoppers is nearly doubling every year and is expected to approach US$ 100 billion by 2004 while business-to-business sales is expected to reach US$ 1.3 trillion by 2003. These opportunities, powered by the evolving computing and communication technologies, enable companies to gain tremendous operational efficiencies, personalization, and information based products and services. More and more conventional brick and mortar firms see e-commerce initiatives as offering strategic opportunities to transcend their normal operations. This study proposes that e-commerce initiatives are important strategic initiatives and that firms with a stronger EC market orientation will be more successful. Content analysis of CEO’s letter to shareholders of 145 Fortune 500 firms was conducted to evaluate the importance of EC and strategic orientation. The results provide support to the study’s propositio ns and indicate that EC must be pursued carefully as a strategic initiative rather than as an appendage to an existing organization.

Author.

Keywords: E-commerce; Strategic orientation; Market orientation; Corporate performance; CEO letter to shareholders; Customer orientation; Competitor orientation; Content analysis 1. Introduction

The emergence of e-commerce is creating fundamental changes to the way that business is conducted. These changes are altering the way in which every enterprise acquires wealth and creates shareholder value. The myriad of powerful computing and communications technology enabling e-commerce allow organizations to streamline their business processes, enhance customer service and offer digital products and services. This shift in underlying marketing fundamentals is now the driving force that is luring many organizations to embrace e-commerce.However, as they are learning, organizations must proceed with caution, as the road to e-commerce is littered with failed initiatives. A plunge in the share prices of dot com companies sent the tech-heavy NASDAQ index into almost free fall; down over 70% of the record high of 10 March 2000. Though an economic slowdown was apparently likely, one thing was painfully clear; most Internet “pure plays” could not find sustainable profitability by operating only as e-commerce organizations simply by excelling in the management of technology, information, and the consumer behavior. Similarly, established companies that viewed e-commerce as a stand-alone appendage to their business would be less likely to succeed in these efforts. Therefore, it is our contention that firms must clearly recognize their e-commerce initiatives as an integral part of their strategic objectives. In addition, we propose that firms that carefully evaluate their customer and competitor base, as a part of strategic thinking, will reap more benefits.

In the process of forming a corporate strategy to respond to the challenges of

environmental change, normative thinking requires that a firm should analyze its industry forces and value-chain activities in order to identify opportunities for IT innovation. Furthermore, it should examine assets, resources, and competency of the staff and identify those mechanisms that confer a distinctive advantage over their rivals. Choice of appropriate strategy could then lead to superior performance. In the case of e-commerce,firms implementing such initiatives should carefully analyze external forces, internal resources and their core competencies. The outcome of this process should be reflected through a tight integration between corporate strategy and e-commerce.This study focuses on this outcome and its relationship with corporate performance.

Specifically, the study investigated the extent to which large successful companies adopted an e-commerce posture that was integrated with their corporate strategy.Thus, we examined the qualitative portio n of the company’s Annual Report: the CEO’s Letter to the Shareholder, using content analysis. This letter presents a unique observation point for the researcher interested in examining corporate strategy and holds potential for determining the innovative methods of the top manager’s strategy[19]. Bettman and Weitz [6] argue that the CEO’s letter, which is a standardized component of the report, provides comparable and more objective data on an organization than would interviews. Pfeffer [39], recognizing the utility of the CEO’s letter as a source of “objective” data on organizations, has called for increased research use of annual report data.

The study uses the CEO’s lette r as input to address the following questions:

1. Is the importance of e-commerce to corporate strategy reflected in improved corporate performance?

2. Does a firm’s strategic orientation with respect to e-commerce have an impact on its performance?

2. Background and propositions

2.1. The perceived importance of e-commerce

The emergence of E-commerce has created a novel marketplace. However, definitions of what constitutes e-commerce vary [35 and 44] Extant studies have referred to the term “e-commerce marketplace” e ither from a system-oriented [3] or a market-structure perspective [33]. Bakos argued that it is the electronic market systems that create a space where buyers and sellers converge. Malone et al. referred to it as a corresponding governance mechanism. Zwass [51 and 52] proposed an architecture that embraces the aforementioned perspectives as two components of an e-commerce structure. E-commerce related IT, in this framework, serves as the infrastructure that leads to the rise of e-commerce.At the top level, resulting from the impact of e-commerce operation is the issue of governance mechanism. Support for electronic marketplaces and electronic hierarchies can be found at the bottom level. In-between these levels there are application layers that provide value-added activities with respect to information sharing, business transactions, and relationship building. Thus, e-commerce includes not only buying and selling goods, but also various processes within and across organizations. We define e-commerce as the use of computing and communication technologies to engage in a wide range of activities up and down the value-added chain, both within and outside the organization [1]. It is widely argued that e-commerce related IT, such as EDI, EFT, electronic messaging, shared corporate digital library etc. could enhance both organizational efficiency and effectiveness. In terms of efficiency benefits, an e-commerce application can generate internal efficiency and external coordination through changes in intra- or inter-organizational integrative processes [24]. Even before the rise of e-commerce,and particularly the Internet, companies engaged in electronic commerce using electronic data interchange (EDI) to improve their operational efficiency. Today, Internet EDI can further integrate and enhance an organization’s operational efficiency.

Riggins and Mukhopadhyay [43] using Chrysler as a case, has shown that the total benefits provided by electronic integration are both tangible and significant.

Effective benefits of e-commerce technology are reflected in the use of the extended information exchange network to create organizational value. Because of the addressability and responsiveness [14] that characterize the system, e-commerce could increase an organization’s ability to sense and respond to the market needs by collecting and disseminating market information throughout the organization. With that information, the organization could accurately assess or stimulate market demand and search for new markets. Making the right decision would in turn have a strategic impact that could change the relationship of the organization with its business rivals and customers.

Despite the benefits provided by e-commerce,however, adopting e-commerce does not ensure competitive advantage, because the technologies are open and available to competitors [31]. Economic impacts do not emanate from IT investments directly, but through the value created by the interaction of the IT assets with the “complementary assets” of the firm [11]. Researchers [7, 26 and 30] propose that the ability to mobilize IT resources in conjunction with other resources is critical to superior performance. Therefore, corporations that see e-commerce integrated with its strategic orientation would be more likely to leverage complementary assets and achieve efficiency and effectiveness benefits. In other words, failure to recognize e-commerce as a part of corporate strategy is more likely to result in isolated initiatives or responses to competitive pressures that are less likely to leverage the full complement of organizational resources. Therefore, we propose:

Proposition 1. There is a positive relationship between a firm’s perception of the importance of e-commerce as reflected in corporate strategy and firm performance.

2.2. Market orientation

Market orientation centers on an organization-wide generation and dissemination of, and responsiveness to, customer intelligence [27]. Narver and Slater [34] widen this conceptualization of market orientation by breaking it into its three components: customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination. They argue that the market concept is not limited to customers but should include a competitor orientation. In other words, a market orientated company would collect, dispatch, and swiftly respond to either or both customer’s needs and rival’s actions. Inter-functional coordination is, in fact, a function of intelligence generation, dissemination, and responsiveness. This study adopts Narver and Slater’s conceptualization but only focuses on customer and competitor orientation. As they argue, market-oriented firms would continuously acquire, process, and disseminate knowledge about market, products, technologies, and business information. Therefore, the third behavioral component is a part of the central essence of the first two.

电子商务和企业战略:一个管理的角度看问题

摘要：尽管在最近的美元价值的下跌以互联网为基础的业务,电子商务(EC)交易令人吃惊的是在增加。在顾客到商业的应用,将大量的在线购物者所花的钱是几乎每年翻翻,预计将接近一千亿美元到2004年当企业对企业销售预计将达到1.3万亿美元到2003年。这些机遇,主要的动力来源的进化计算技术和通信技术,使企业获得巨大的运行效率,个性化,并以信息为基础的产品和服务。越来越多的传统砖和砂浆公司看到电子商务提供战略机会看成是超越自己的正常运营。本研究提出电子商务主动性是重要的战略措施和公司,一个更强大的电子商务市场取向会取得更大的成功。内容分析的首席执行官的信给股东的财富500强公司进行了145之重要性评价EC和战略方向。结果提供技术支持,该研究的命题,同时表明,EC必须仔细地作为一个战略主动性追求,而不是当作一个现有的组织。

关键词:电子商务,战略定位、市场为导向,首席执行官和公司绩效,给股东、客户为导向,竞争者导向,内容分析

1 介绍

商业运作中电子商务的出现是创造的方式发生了根本性的变化。这些正在改变的方式,每个企业都获得财富和创造股东价值。这些各种各样的强大的计算和通信技术使电子商务允许组织精简业务流程,提高客户服务和提供的数码产品和服务。这种转变是在现在的潜在市场基本面驱动力诱使许多组织去拥抱电子商务。然而,当他们学习时,组织必须谨言慎行,解决电子商务是许多的失败的措施。跳水里的股票价格差点com公司纳斯达克指数几乎自由落体下的;大多数互联网的纯玩的不可能找到可持续盈利能力,操作仅作为电子商务组织通过擅长标书技术管理,信息和消费行为。同样,建立电子商务公司,作为一个独立的附属品观察到他们的生意就会少一些成功的可能性要在这些方面所做的努力。因此,我们的论点就是公司必须认清自己的电子商务主动性作为一个不可分割的一部分,其战略目标。此外,我们建议仔细评估他们的公司客户和竞争对手的基地,同时绝大部分的战略思路,将获得更多的利益。

在这个过程中形成企业战略来应对这种挑战,从而适应环境变化的要求,规范思维分析其行业的公司请力量和价值链活动以识别机会来的创新。此外,它应重新审视资产、资

源和能力的员工和识别那些机制所赋予的独特的优势比他们的对手更胜一筹。选择适当的策略可以导致较高的性能。电子商务的情况一样,公司实施这样计划应当认真分析外在力量,内部的资源和核心竞争力。这个过程的结果应该反映经过一个很窄的整合,从企业战略和电子商务。这项研究集中在这个结果和它的关系与公司绩效。

确切地说,是研究调查了,在一定程度上,大成功的公司采取一种电子商务的姿势,是公司战略的整合在一起。因此,我们调查了定性的部分公司的年度报告:该公司的首席执行官写信给股东,使用内容分析。这封信的概念, 研究者感兴趣的公司策略提出了一种独特的检验观点和拥有潜在的确定方法的创新与最高管理者的战略(19)。Bettman和韦茨[6]认为,CEO的信,这是一种标准化的组成部分的报告,提供更客观数据具有可比性并对组织就比接受媒体采访。[39],认识到分离的效用CEO的信源数据的组织“客观”,号召加大研究使用的年度报告的数据。

书房用CEO的字母作为神经网络的输入来解决以下问题:

1．电子商务是企业战略的重要性体现在改善企业业绩吗?

2．一个公司的战略定位是关于电子商务有影响其性能?

2 背景和命题

2.1 在察觉到电子商务的重要性

电子商务的出现已经形成了一种新颖的市场。然而,电子商务改变所包含的内容的定义[35到44]现存的研究已经提到了这个术语“电子商务市场“要么从系统导向[3]或[33]市场构建视角。Bakos辩称,它是电子市场体系,创造一个空间,在买家和卖家趋同。马龙、苏达权等管它叫做一个相应的治理机制。Zwass[51]提出的架构和52%的上述方面包含了一个电子商务网站两个组成部分的结构。相关的电子商务,在这一框架内,作为基础设施,使得电子商务的兴起。在最高水平的影响,造成的问题是电子商务经营治理机制。支持电子商务市场和电子阶层可以发现在底部的水平。介于两者之间的这些层中,有应用层提供增值活动,对信息共享、商务交易,并建立联系。因此,电子商务不仅包括买卖商品,而且各工序在各组织。我们定义电子商务在使用计算机和通信技术在从事大量活动上上下下地增值链,在组织内外[1]。它被广泛地认为,如电子商务相关的电子数据交换(EDI),电子转账、电子通讯、共享企业数字图书馆等都能提高组织效率和有效性。在利益的角度下,

电子商务应用效率可以产生内部效率的变化和外部协调通过组织间的整合过程内部的—或者[24]。甚至,在电子商务的兴起,尤其是互联网,公司从事电子商务使用电子数据交换(EDI)来改进他们的运作效率。今天,互联网的电子数据交换(EDI)可以进一步整合,提高组织的运作效率。Riggins和Mukhopadhyay[43]使用克莱斯勒为例,表明了所提供的电子整合总效益都是有形的和具有很重要的意义。

电子商务技术有效的好处体现在使用延伸的信息交流网络创造组织的价值观。由于这种关系和响应率[14],以显示该系统,电子商务能够增加一个组织的能力去感知和应对市场需求,由市场信息收集和传播在整个组织。有了这些信息,该组织能准确地评估或刺激市场需求和寻找新的市场。做出正确的决定会反过来有一个战略影响的关系,可以改变的企业,其企业竞争对手和顾客。

尽管提供的电子商务带来的好处,然而,采用电子商务还不能确保竞争优势,因为这一技术是开放给竞争者[31]。不像是来自经济影响,它直接的,而是通过投资创造的价值由它资产的互动互补资产”与“公司[11]。研究人员,26日和30日[7]提议的能力,调动的IT资源会同其他资源以卓越的性能是至关重要的。因此,企业看到电子商务结合其战略定位的可能性更大,达到杠杆互补资产的效率和有效性的好处。换句话说,不能认识电子商务作为企业战略的一部分,更可能会导致在孤立的措施或反应的竞争压力,并不太可能杠杆的全套的组织资源。为此,我们提出:命题1。有一个正面的关系的理解,一个公司的重要性体现在电子商务作为企业战略和坚定的表现。

2.2 市场定位

市场定位集中于组织级的产生和传播,并及时回应,客户智力[27]。Narver及斯莱特[34]扩大这建立理论化的市场定位打破到它的三个部分:客户导向、竞争对手信息定位、功能协调。他们认为市场的概念并不局限于消费者,而应该包括一个竞争者导向。换句话说,一个市场为主的公司将收集,派遣及迅速回应或是两客户的需求和竞争对手的行动。功能协调,实际上是一个函数的智能生成,传播和反应。本研究采用了Narver斯莱特的概念,但注重顾客和竞争对手的取向。他们互相争论,以市场为导向的公司将不断的取得、知识和传播过程中,市场、产品、技术和商业信息。因此,第三行为组件是一个部分的中央本质的头两个。