B2B e-commerce stages of growth: the strategic imperatives

A conceptual stages-of-growth model for managing a social media business profile

“…While some researchers such as Lingling (2011) and Rocha (2012) support the notion that organisations can select which aspects of the technology to move forward on, Lingling (2011) argues that stages cannot be skipped because the experience learned from the previous stage is necessary for the next stage. Chan and Swatman (2004) found that only two growth types, namely, (i) strategy and objectives and (ii) focus of the implementation, were consistent when examined empirically across several cases. SoG models have also been adopted by Hinrichs (1997), KPMG (1997), Damsgaard and Scheepers (1999), and Duane and Finnegan (2003), to explore the evolution of Intranets in organisations.…”

“…Evidence from the literature of previous SoG models indicate that use of technology is often a reliable indicator of the level of maturity (Chan and Swatman, 2004;Earl, 2000;Rao et al, 2003;Watson et al, 2001), and the authors believe that this evidence of use of the SMBP, coupled with the associated dominant problems, seem consistent with the organisations' maturity stages, as indicated by the respondents, i.e. respondents have accurately indicated the stage of maturity for their own organisation with respect to management and dominant problems of the SMBP in Stage 1 and Stage 2.…”

“…The names of stages and the benchmark variables by which they are measured differ to some extent, as is evident from the plethora of SoG models that have been developed over the past 40 years. However, all SoG models purport that ISs evolve through a number of stages, with respect to their use and management, and increase in sophistication and complexity as their application becomes more significant and mission critical (Chan and Swatman, 2004;Damsgaard and Scheepers, 1999;de Brí, 2009;de Bruin et al, 2005;Duane and Finnegan, 2003;Earl, 1989;Forrester, 2012;García et al, 2013;Gibson and Nolan, 1974;Gottschalk and Khandelwal, 2004;Gottschalk and Solli-Saether, 2010;Jacobs and Nakata, 2010;Janssen and van Veenstra, 2005;Jayasuriya, 1993;Jeffery and Leliveld, 2004;Kazanjian, 1988;King and Teo, 1997;KPMG, 1997;Layne and Lee, 2001;Lingling, 2011;Magal et al, 1988;McFarlan and McKenney, 1982;Nikhil et al, 2007;Rao et al, 2003;Rocha, 2012). The following sections discuss the development and use of SoG models over the past 40 years, including recent SoG models for social media, before discussing the dominant problems associated with social media.…”

“…the structure and level of management can insufficient (Chan & Swatman, 2004). a failure to adapt to the pace of rapid growth (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).…”

“…nine benchmark variables: data; architecture; stability of production environment; warehouse staff; users of warehouse; impact on users' skills and jobs; use of warehouse ; organisational impacts; costs and benefits (Watson et al, 2001). five growth types: strategy/objectives; focus; structure; management involvement; technology types/applications (Chan & Swatman, 2004). six domains: strategic alignment; governance; methods; IT; people; culture (de Bruin and Roseman, 2005).…”