The effect of information technology assimilation on firm performance in B2B scenarios

Abstract

PurposeThe spread of the Internet in the business world has led to the development of new business-to-business (B2B) settings. Although a large number of companies have adopted B2B strategies, many of these fail to implement such strategies effectively. The most common barriers encompass the technology assimilation by users. This study investigates how IT assimilation can encourage potential and realised absorptive capacity and how these can, in turn, facilitate organisational agility and performance.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted in Spanish companies that make use of Editran, a platform to support B2B strategies. In total, 110 valid responses were obtained. Advanced analytical methods of PLS-SEM as fit measures and prediction procedure recently developed by Shmueli et al. (2019) were used.FindingsThe results show that there is a positive relationship between the three preceding constructs (IT assimilation, potential and realised absorptive capacity) and organisational agility. This study also finds support for a direct relationship between organisational agility and firm performance.Originality/valueThis study provides a further understanding and forecasting through the theoretical development and empirical investigation of the role of IT assimilation on firm performance in a B2B scenario by: (1) examining the link between IT and the firm's absorptive capacity and, more specifically, with the two subsets of potential and realised absorptive capacity, which have not received much attention from previous literature; and (2) exploring how an improvement in potential and realised absorptive capacity may place firms in a better position to develop their organisational agility.

Guest editorial

“…The special issue also includes articles applying advanced PLS methods in various empirical contexts. Martínez-Caro et al (2021) study how IT assimilation affects performance in the business-to-business (B2B) context, and aim to resolve the debate in the current literature on the direct relationship between IT and firm performance. Drawing on the organization capability view, a complex path model has been developed which proposes that the relationship between IT assimilation and organizational performance is mediated by absorptive capacity (both realized and potential) and organizational agility.…”

“…However, there are many open-ended ways in which PLSpredict can be applied and it has taken some time for the PLS community to formalize best practices that are compatible with existing research approaches. The article by Martínez-Caro et al (2021) in this issue demonstrates one straightforward way in which researchers have interpreted PLSpredict, while Chin et al (2021) examine wider causal-prediction criteria. Researchers would benefit from applying these methods to future-proof their research by ensuring its validity in other samples or future data.…”

Relations between merchandising information orientation, strategic integration and retail performance

“…an expert with specialised knowledge), the growing role of its capabilities, as well as intangible assets, have been given more attention (Liang et al , 2010; Lioukas et al , 2016; Wade and Hulland, 2004). Third, previous studies have demonstrated that information strategy can facilitate innovation and superior performance through improved efficiency and effectiveness, and reduced uncertainty (Martínez-Caro et al , 2020; Prince et al , 2019).…”

“…A firm’s information strategy is a plan, implementation and management of a strategy utilising valuable resource of information, knowledge or data to accomplish its objectives (Lioukas et al , 2016; Markovich et al , 2019; Martínez-Caro et al , 2020; Smits and van der Poel, 1996; Wade and Hulland, 2004). It is therefore a crucial factor for business performance.…”

“…For instance, Lioukas et al (2016) presented a well-developed managerial information strategy in an alliance setting, which emphasised the impact of information technology (IT) capability in collecting information about alliance partners and the progress of alliance tasks on alliance performance. In addition, other studies have provided evidence on the positive influence of information sharing within the business network (Chang and Chuang, 2011), IT resources and competencies (Ravichandran and Lertwongsatien, 2005), technological and organisational resource (Liang et al , 2010), IT assimilation (Martínez-Caro et al , 2020) and firms’ resource commitment (Mao et al , 2016) on firm performance.…”