External Web content and its influence on organizational performance

Abstract

Research into the Internet has experienced a tremendous growth within the field of information systems. In this sense, the recent literature focuses on more complex research topics. However, there is a need to further investigate into the more basic and primary use of Internet, the external Web site to interact with stakeholders. By external, we mean publicly accessible contents. This paper develops a framework that allows evaluation of external Web content of business Web sites and examines the influence on firm performance. Here, external Web content is studied according to three Web orientations: e-information, e-communication, and e-transaction. In addition, differences in external Web content are analysed according to two contingency factors: business size and business industry. To achieve these goals, a sample comprising 288 Spanish SMEs firms was employed. The results show a positive relationship between external Web content and firm performance. Furthermore, this research indicates the existence of complementarities among the Web orientations. Thus, existing e-information was found as critical for enabling e-transaction to impact upon firm performance. Additionally, e-information and e-communication (jointly considered) were found to mutually reinforce the impact of e-transaction on firm performance. The results also confirm that external Web content is not related to business size and differs slightly by business industry.

Keywords:

• web sites
• web content
• web development
• e-business
• firm performance

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers and the EJIS associate editor for their highly constructive comments and suggestions which allowed us to furthering the work. We also thank Fundación CajaMurcia for the financial support provided.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Angel L Meroño-Cerdan

About the authors

Angel L. Meroño-Cerdan is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Murcia in Spain. He holds a Master in Business and Foreign Trade and a Ph.D. in Business Administration (University of Murcia, Spain). Teaching and researching are related to Information Systems, Knowledge Management and e-business. He has published in journals such as International Journal of Information Management and Universia Business Review.

Pedro Soto-Acosta

Pedro Soto-Acosta is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at the University of Murcia (Spain). He holds a Ph.D. in MIS and a Master's in Technology Management from University of Murcia. He received his B.A. in Business Administration from University of Murcia and his B.A. in Accounting & Finance from Manchester Metropolitan University (U.K.). His research interests are in the areas of MIS and e-business.