Firm Management, Strategy, Resources, and Presence on the Web

This paper examines the variables associated with a firm having a site on the World WideWeb and with the site's characteristics. We predict that company leadership and strategy,firm resources and the need to communicate with the public are associated with thepresence of Web sites and their characteristics. To test the predictions, we use data fromthe Business Week 1000 largest firms in the US., two year's of chairmans' annual reportletters, and a survey of Web sites. The results show that firm leadership and strategy isthe strongest predictor of having a Web site and its characteristics. Firm resources andthe need to communicate are also positively associated with Web sites. The presence of aWeb site and its evaluation appear to be independent of industry classification. Weexplore the implications of the results for firm strategy toward the adoption oftechnological innovations