E-business capabilities model Validation and comparison between adopter and non-adopter of e-business companies in UK

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework to evaluate e-business strategic capabilities using structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. Design/methodology/approach - The paper identifies three e-business capabilities, namely business strategy, supply chain strategy and e-business readiness. These capabilities are further decomposed under technology, organization and people dimensions to assess their contribution for business effectiveness. A questionnaire is designed and implemented using SEM technique. Survey data from 143 firms from the UK are collected to test our theoretical model. In particular, we have tested a positive, mediating/reciprocal relationships among multidimensional measures of business strategy, supply chain strategy and e-business adoption. Further hypotheses are developed to evaluate a direct positive impact of e-business on company's performance. Findings - This empirical analyses demonstrate several key findings: success of e-business in UK firms is attributed to the strong positive co-relationship of supply chain strategy to business strategy and to e-business adoption; within the technology-organization-people dimensions, e-business adoption and business strategy emerges as the strongest factors for the company's performances for the adopter of e-business group, whereas supply chain capabilities and business strategies is relatively a stronger contributory factor towards business success for non-adopter of e-business. Originality/value - It is expected that the results from this study will provide useful guidelines for companies to assess their strengths and weaknesses towards adopting an effective e-business implementation strategy.