The Impact of Business to Consumer E-Commerce on Organisational Structure, Brand Architecture, it Structure and Their Interrelations

Previous research on e-commerce has analysed its influence on organisational structure, brand management, and IT structure separately. Drawing on transaction cost theory we analyse the simultaneous impacts of business-to-consumer (B2C) e commerce on organisational structure, brand architecture, and IT structure. The results of a survey among 49 Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and 49 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of 64 out of the 100 most important consumer brand companies in Austria show that the amount of change in all three structural elements increases as the importance they attach to B2C e commerce grows. Furthermore, the amount of change in brand architecture and organisational structure as well as the amount of change in brand architecture and IT structure are significantly linked to each other even after controlling for the importance of B2C e commerce. Mixed results were found for the hypothesis that higher levels of importance of B2C e commerce enhance the dependence of the marketing-related IT structure on changes in brand architecture