E-Marketing Activities and Perceived Competitive Advantage in the Context of Globalization: Study of Lublin Region Firms

ICT usage for communication and marketing activities can play important role in facilitating internationalization of firms, as well as being a source of competitive advantage of the enterprise in comparison to firms less advanced in ICT deployment. Main goal of the paper is to explore to what extent e-marketing activities performed by a firms located in one of less developed and peripheral regions of European Union – Lublin Voivodeship (Lublin Region) are connected with perceived competitive advantage on international and domestic markets. Paper describes differences between 3 groups of firms: exporters, potential exporters, and firms not interested in international presence, as well as the model of influence of e-marketing activities on perceived competitive advantage Data are coming from large scale survey of 1680 firms from Lublin Region. Mentioned groups are differing in ICT usage – on general level and also for using particular technologies and e-marketing tools. Generally the higher level of internationalization the higher usage of Internet communication and e-marketing activities. Particularly exporters are more aware of the importance of several e-marketing activities, and perceive them as more efficient comparing to other groups analyzed.