Adoption of Internet-Based Marketing Channels by Small- and Medium-Sized Manufacturers

This paper analyses factors influencing manufacturers’ adoption of Internet-based marketing channels using models based on marketing channel and organisational innovation theory. Survey data from 1,163 Danish, Finnish, and Swedish manufacturers form the empirical basis for testing the models using LISREL analysis. The results stress that adoption of Internet-based marketing is influenced by willingness to cannibalize, by management support, by market pressure, and by a firm’s knowledge of IT. A willingness to cannibalize mediates the effects of future market orientation, ownership, specialized investments, and management support. This is mainly the case in small firms, as the importance of the various drivers and the adoption pattern varies among size categories. Market-pull factors have relatively more explanatory power in medium-sized and large companies.