Market Orientation, Ownership Type, and E-Business Assimilation: Evidence from Chinese Firms

While more and more firms have implemented e-business in business operations, a better understanding of the factors that successfully drive the assimilation of e-business will provide insights for firm executives and practitioners to develop effective strategies for e-business. Different from previous studies that focus on individual-level factors related to business executives and top management teams, this study examines how firm-level strategic and cultural factors shape e-business assimilation. Based on the strategy and marketing literature on market orientation and firm ownership, we developed a research model to describe how a firm's market orientation impacts e-business assimilation. The model also describes the moderating effect of firm ownership type on the relationship between market orientation and e-business assimilation. Based on data from 301 Chinese international trade firms, we found that two dimensions of market orientation (i.e., customer orientation, competitor orientation) had significant effects on e-business assimilation. However, the third dimension, interfunctional coordination, was only partially significant. In addition, ownership type was a significant moderator of the effects of customer orientation and competitor orientation on e-business assimilation, although ownership type was not a moderator of interfunctional coordination. Being one of the first studies of the impact of market orientation and firm ownership type on e-business assimilation, we conclude with a discussion of the implications for future research and practice.