The influence of e-business alliance network on E-business firm’s performance: An exploratory study

摘要

In recent years the study of the influence of networks has extended beyond the discipline of sociology to the field of management and organization studies. Extant literature contains examples of various endeavors to study formal/informal networks at different levels of aggregation in an organization. With the rapid growth of the Internet there has been a greater need to demystify the dynamics of networks in the virtual world. As opposed to the studies which have focused on the networks among individuals on the Web, the present study explores the influence of e-business networks on e-business firms. This is accomplished by taking a sample of e-business firms from banking and recruitment industry in India. Comparison of this influence (of e-business networks on e-business firms) with the network influences of off-line businesses (on off-line businesses firms) highlights the points of similarity as well as dissimilarity that exist because of the different platforms. The result of the study also highlights the inter-industry differences and provides guidelines for the ebusiness practitioners for managing and optimizing their networks.