The Success Factors Of Small Online Vendors In China: A Content Analysis

摘要

E-commerce is playing an increasingly important role in the growth of small businesses, but the success factors of small online vendors are not fully understood. Based on a content analysis of 236 cases, the success of small online vendors is explained within a Motivation-Ability (M-A) framework. Specifically, we found that the success of small online vendors is mainly explained by eight factors that can be roughly fit into the M-A framework. They are external utility-based motivation, internal enjoyment and vision-based motivation, dynamic capability, online marketing capability, information system support, management practice, product and service quality. One factor, online social networking, is found unexpectedly and does not fit into M-A framework, An integrative framework based on M-A and online social networking is built in order to theorize the findings.