Discusses the results of content analysis of the Web sites of Fortune 100 companies, carried out to identify the mix of promotional activities on their Web sites. Specifically, we performed a content analysis of Web sites utilizing categories representing a range of marketing communications, including: communicating product, pricing and dealer/retail location information, related and unrelated advertisements, sales promotion, direct marketing, basic company information and public relations. We also identified differences between and among industries based on standard industrial classification (SIC) codes. We found considerable variability in how members of the Fortune 100 used their Web sites. The Web sites ranged from very simple ones that focused on basic company information, such as company history, to quite complex Web sites that incorporated a mix of promotional elements, such as press releases, advertisements, games, free gifts and pricing information.
The extant literature suggests that performance may be a function of the degree to which market information is systematically collected, disseminated and responded to (i.e. market orientation). However, the majority of empirical research on the market orientation to performance relationship has focused on manufacturers and has not distinguished between incumbents and new entrants. Our study of incumbent firms involves the market orientation to performance relationship in the context of services in the growing and competitive Internet industry. We found that market orientation did not directly affect performance, nor did the interaction of market orientation and perceptions of new competitors. However, perceptions of traditional competitors directly affected performance and interacted with market orientation to affect performance.
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