بررسی اثر موقعیت استراتژیک بر عملکرد شرکت در زمینه کسب و کار الکترونیکی

This study investigates what strategic positions exist in the e-business context and how strategic positioning affects firm performance. The current study draws on the concept of fit between environmental factors and organizational factors. We collected survey data from both pure online and click-and-mortar companies and tested the model using 133 firm reports. Cluster analysis was performed to analyze survey data and to find groups of companies that pursue similar strategic positioning. The findings of the current study lend support to the hypothesis of distinctive grouping based on environmental factors and resources. The findings also support the hypothesis that strategic positioning influences firm performance. The major implication of this study is that innovative differentiation strategies together with technological resources strongly affect firm performance in the e-business context, a context where there is considerable turbulence in technological development.

The widespread use of Internet technologies for electronic business (e-business) enables creative rethinking of business models, processes, and organizational structures (Feeny, 2001), which in turn leads to increased demand for effective strategic positioning to ensure a firm's survival and sustainability (Lederer, Mirchandani, & Sims, 2001). Many studies have examined a variety of issues with regard to the relationship between strategy and e-business. Foci of these studies include the transformation of a firm to digital organization, the formulation of e-business strategy in dynamic environments, the effects of technologies on strategy formulation, the integration of channels between online and offline firms, and the effect of organizational and environmental factors in formulating online strategy (Evans & Wurster, 1999; Plant, 2000; Rangan & Adner, 2001; Rifkin & Kurtzman, 2002; Semler, 2000; Song & Zahedi, 2005). Previous research has also emphasized the importance of strategic positioning in establishing an e-business and has touted the potential to gain competitive advantage through the use of IT and e-business technology (Cortese, 1996; Hagel & Armstrong, 1997). Relatively little research has been done to empirically test the relationship between strategic positioning and firm performance, however. This lack of empirical examination prevents managers from making an informed choice as to which strategic position is the most suitable to their given situation and how the choice of strategic position will affect business performance. Strategic management literature argues that the strategic position chosen by firms allows them to enjoy abnormal returns or help them survive turbulent environments (Spanos & Lioukas, 2001). The current study tests this argument and contributes to literature in two ways. First, this research investigates the issue of determining strategic position based on both environmental factors and resources of firms. Second, this study empirically tests the role of strategic positioning in explaining firm performance. By explaining the relationship between performance and strategic positioning, the current study can also provide insights into the combination of multiple strategies into a specific form. In sum, this study illustrates that the combination of an innovative differentiation strategy (IDS) with technological resources strongly affects firm performance in the dynamic and unstable e-business context. This paper will proceed as follows. In Section 2, we will present the theoretical background for our study and develop our research model and hypotheses based on the previous literature. In Section 3, we will describe our methodology, data collection, measurement, and statistical analysis. We will then report and discuss our findings in Section 4, highlighting the implications for both research and practice. We conclude in Section 5 by noting the limitations of this study and potential areas for future research.

In this study, we investigated what kinds of strategic positions exist in the e-business context and how strategic positioning affects firm performance. We did so using cluster analysis and drawing on the concept of the fit between environmental factors and organizational factors (Andrews, 1971; Hofer & Schendel, 1978; Zajac et al., 2000). The findings of the current study lend support for the hypotheses that the difference in the perception of both environmental factors and firm-specific resources leads to different strategic positioning among e-business firms. Another conclusion is that different strategic positioning results in significantly different performance. This finding is in agreement with earlier arguments that strategic positioning affects firm performance (Hawawini, Subramanian, & Verdin (2003) and Hawawini, Subramanian, & Verdin (2005); Porter (1980) and Porter (2001)) and that distinctive resources possessed by firms create competitive advantage (Barney, 1986; Pennings & Harianto, 1992; Whittington, 1987). The major implication of this study lies in the finding that where there is considerable turbulence in technological development, the IDS underpinned by technological resources strongly affects firm performance. In addition, strategic positioning based upon a combination of the FS and the IDS results in the most synergy for performance. Exemplars of this positioning are Dell and Google. To maintain competitive advantage, Dell has focused on a differentiation strategy through personalized service and innovative technology development. This is in addition to their focus on low cost leadership (Fahy & Hooley, 2002). Google has devoted its resources to the development of in-depth, high performance search technology so that it can dominate the market for information search (Vise & Malseed, 2005). Another contribution of this study is the observation made regarding the role of CLS. The findings of this study suggest that the CLS can be regarded as such a fundamental strategy in e-business competition that it may not function as a differentiator of firm performance. Stahl (1989) suggested that decreasing search costs through information technology may bring about stronger price competition between firms, which in turn leads to reduced profits of e-business firms (Rosen & Howard, 2000) but improved consumer welfare (Stahl, 1989). In sum, the findings of this study suggest that e-business firms should develop a unique mixture of the IDS and the FS by securing technological resources so that they can stay competitive. 5.1. Limitations and future research This study, like other studies, is not free from limitations. First, we made use of perception measures for firm performance. This is reasonable when it is very hard to distinguish pure e-business performance from whole company performance—particularly in case of click-and-mortar firms. However, objective measures of firm performance may reduce method variance and allow more generalizability. For this reason, future research may utilize objective measures for firm performance instead of the perception measures used here. Second, we empirically identified three clusters of similarly positioned firms. This information may be useful for practitioners seeking guidance for positioning in the e-business context. However, we did not probe the theoretical meaning of the strategic positionings. Theoretical investigation by future studies may contribute to literature as the basis for further research on strategic positioning. Finally, this study did not address nonresponse bias that may cause an overestimation of the effects of strategic positioning on firm performance. Future research that addresses nonresponse bias may provide even stronger results.