Antecedents Of E-business Assimilation And Its Impact On Sustained Competitive Advantage: Evidence From Chinese International Trading Firms

E-business is one of major modes applied in international trade across the globe throughout different aspects, such as electronic data exchange, documents transmission, electronic payment and remote logistic control etc. Full employment of e-commerce in the area of international trade helps China’s firms to initiatively adapt themselves to the new trends of global trade and to promote the steady growth of aggregate foreign trade of China. With due attention and support of the government, e-commerce has been developing greatly in the field of international trade of China.With increasing importance attached to e-commerce recently, there is a plethora of research on e-commerce adoption home and abroad. Too much focus is put on what affects e-adoption, rather than e-business assimilation. The dissertation purports to explore why some firms assimilate e-business at a slow speed while other firms succeed in e-business assimilation. In the meantime, it explores the impact of e-business assimilation on firm’s sustainable competitive advantages. Thus, the study analyzes the determinants of e-business assimilation by foreign trading enterprises, based on TOE framework adopted in the field of information system with institutional theory, and next explores the impact of e-business assimilation on sustainable competitive advantages by foreign trading companies. The study collected 220 questionnaires from senior managers of foreign trading companies in Jiangsu provinces. Structural equation model is used to analyze the determinants of e-business assimilation by foreign trading companies and its impact on sustainable competitive advantages of firms.We found out that technological integration, technological readiness, degree of globalization, interface with e-marketplace and financial resources are significantly positively associated with e-business assimilation. Technological integration, interface with e-marketplace, technological readiness and degree of globalization are positively related with e-business assimilation breadth at a significant level. Financial resources, technological readiness, interface with e-marketplace and degree of globalization are positively associated with e-business assimilation depth. We found no significant impact of top management support, imitative pressure and government support on e-business assimilation by foreign trading companies. Results also support the positive impact of e-business assimilation on sustainable competitive advantages of firms. E-business assimilation depth shows a stronger impact on sustainable competitive advantages.Different from extant literature focusing on e-adoption, the study constructs a model of e-business assimilation. Foreign trading companies are chosen as research subject to analyze e-business assimilation in this particular industry. The study tries to distinguish unique factors determining e-business assimilation different from domestic trading firms, which reflects different strategies are adopted to assimilate e-business in different industries. Previous literature focuses too much on antecedents of e-business but little on outcomes, i.e. sustainable competitive advantages. The study integrates the antecedents and outcomes of e-business assimilation together for a deep analysis.