عوامل برای اتخاذ وب کاوی از شرکت های B2C: تجربه تایوان

This paper focuses on the web mining adoption of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in terms of organizational innovation theories. It first examines the current literature of information systems studies and suggests that the context of web mining adoption needs to be taken into account. This paper proposes an analytical model employing a number of internal, external factors, and the stages of web mining adoption. The model explores the relationships influencing the stages of web mining adoption. Empirical testing is based on a sample of 68 B2C firms from Taiwanese SMEs. The results show that firm's Internet strategy, internationalized strategy, and business complexity along with competitive pressure influence on the stage of web mining adoption. The implications of findings for the management of web mining adoption and suggestions for the future study are discussed.

Similar to conventional industries, B2C firms not only need to be profitable to survive, but also need to be adaptable to the turbulent business environment. However, attracting new online customers or retaining existing one are not easy [10]. In this circumstance, a historical archive of customer information and data mining techniques are valuable to overcome this problem by drawing and analyzing information on customer behavior and activities, and providing analysis of customer preference. In particular, web mining in the analysis of user behavior on the Internet has been increasing rapidly to understand users' common behavior [33]. Web mining provides greater purchasing and customer service options by incorporating data warehouses and knowledge management projects. It is one of the best strategies to differentiate from competitors and enables B2C firms to discover resource, extract information and uncover general patterns [32], resulting in a quicker respond to their customers and, in turn, a more satisfied and loyal customer. Accordingly, the management of adoption of web mining is now of a critically important issue. Although the strategic potential of web mining is now well recognized, a number of phenomena show more efforts are need. First, previous studies mainly focused either on the technical perspective or on the application development of web mining (e.g. [6] and [20]), and have little efforts on the factors that affect the process of web mining deployment. Adoption and diffusion of innovative technologies have remained critical concerns in IT research. IT investment and adoption decisions are more difficult than many other investment decisions [37] and management now faces a dilemma concerning the strategic use of IT. Second, most previous research has concentrated on large business context, ignoring small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). This is understandable, since IT has been the privilege of large businesses due to the huge investment required in the past. However, SMEs potentially constitute the most dynamic firms in an emerging economy and are the life-blood of modern economics [15]. The importance of SMEs in economic growth has made them a central element in much recent policy making to promote and facilitate the operation of the innovation process within SMEs [19]. Third, studies (e.g. [20]) have revealed many reasons for data mining such as to improve customer service, to build a long-term client relationship, to reduce marketing cost, and to increase sales. Too often, the business is surfing in prevailing views enthusiastically such as the adoption of web mining without asking: “why some organizations do not?” That is, they do not explain why some organizations adopt it earlier than others, and why some may never adopt this innovation. Accordingly, the adoption behavior of web mining has not yet been convincingly demonstrated. This study attempts to address these concerns by viewing web mining as a technological innovation and examining factors that facilitate their initiation, adoption, and implementation. A research model is then proposed and tested. Both internal and external contextual factors of web mining adoption are investigated. Using data from a national wide survey, impact of internal and external e-commerce characteristics on the initiation and adoption of web mining was examined. This empirical test of the proposed research model is drawn on a sample of 68 Taiwanese B2C firms in terms of the stages of adoption. The next section discusses the background and the state-of-the-art of the development of web mining. This is followed by a detailed description of the proposed model and research methodology. Subsequently, the paper presents the data analysis and hypotheses testing. The final section concludes by discussing future research directions.

From a sample of 68 IT managers, we examined differences in adoption, measured by seven factors, to understand the underlying internal and external characteristics. For instance, we found a significant relationship between adoption and Internet entry strategy, but do firms with online transactions result in preference for new technology? Table 7 summarizes our findings.Complexity was a critical variable even in B2C firms. This is consistent with prior studies that have demonstrated complexity is a critical factor in IT adoption and use. Concerning entry strategy, transaction-oriented firms are more likely adopt new technology than information-oriented firms. Companies with online transaction applications are more sensitive to technological benefits, and competitive/operational/efficient pressure. The ANOVA test for external factors, shown in Table 6, indicates firms do not show significant difference in degree of pressure for creating leading products/services. Similarly, neither the pressure of a company to pursue a market-oriented strategy nor the degree of a company's globalization affects the adoption preference. The pressure for creating comprehensive website information shows a significant difference in web mining adoption. Perceived technological benefits are also a significant influence on adoption. The overall validity of the research model developed using Organizational Innovation concepts was supported in this study. Although not all hypotheses were proven, the statistics measuring the model do fit, showing the research model was statistically valid. The results showed that organizational factor has a greater influence on the decision model than external factors in terms of partial contribution to the total variance. This indicates when an organization decides whether to adopt web mining, business operation needs may be the most important consideration. Of the three factors found to be significant in affecting adoption, international strategy is most similar to organizational slack and/or size in Roger's framework. The Internet entry strategy identifies with complexity in Roger's framework. The competitive pressure in Roger's framework is still valid in this study. Table 8 gives an overview of the Organizational Innovations studies. Our findings correspond with Chengalur-Smith and Duchessi [6], Premkumar and Roberts [38], and Kuan and Chau [25].This study was conducted to explore factors influencing the intention of B2C firms to adopt web mining technology. As such, there is room for further investigation. The following are some advices for future studies. First, future studies should investigate adopter performance and effectiveness. Second, as web mining technology and customer relationship management concepts are still relatively new in Taiwan, this study has been unable to measure the adopting behavior of such technologies, which has been suggested by Organizational Innovativeness theory. Future studies should incorporate this measure once the diffusion has reached a reasonable base. This way, more comprehensive knowledge of web mining and customer relationship management adoption behavior can be understood. Third, the study of web mining adoption can be extended to e-commerce firms. Comparison can then be made between B2C and B2B firms in terms of underlying factors that affect their adoption decisions.