The effect of information technology assimilation on firm performance in B2B scenarios

Purpose: The spread of the Internet in the business world has led to the development of new business-to-business (B2B) settings. Although a large number of companies have adopted B2B strategies, many of these fail to implement such strategies effectively. The most common barriers encompass the technology assimilation by users. This study investigates how IT assimilation can encourage potential and realised absorptive capacity and how these can, in turn, facilitate organisational agility and performance. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted in Spanish companies that make use of Editran, a platform to support B2B strategies. In total, 110 valid responses were obtained. Advanced analytical methods of PLS-SEM as fit measures and prediction procedure recently developed by Shmueliet al.(2019) were used. Findings: The results show that there is a positive relationship between the three preceding constructs (IT assimilation, potential and realised absorptive capacity) and organisational agility. This study also finds support for a direct relationship between organisational agility and firm performance. Originality/value: This study provides a further understanding and forecasting through the theoretical development and empirical investigation of the role of IT assimilation on firm performance in a B2B scenario by: (1) examining the link between IT and the firm's absorptive capacity and, more specifically, with the two subsets of potential and realised absorptive capacity, which have not received much attention from previous literature; and (2) exploring how an improvement in potential and realised absorptive capacity may place firms in a better position to develop their organisational agility.