Strategic profiles and Internet performance: An empirical investigation into the development of a strategic Internet system

Organizations continue to work on defining and developing better strategic Internet systems. The use of the Internet should not, however. adversely affect their existing business processes but rather incorporate and support them. Therefore, developing a strategic Internet system should support their strategic profile while providing high performance from its use. We took a new approach to Internet development by analyzing an organization's Internet use and performance by adopting Miles and Snow's classifications of business strategy: Defenders, Analyzers, and Prospectors. A sample of 257 IT managers and professionals helped in suggesting relationships between Internet use and performance; the consequent model was then validated. Further analysis was then conducted at the dimension level to highlight the differences between strategic profiles and the appropriate Internet use. The results indicated identifiable approaches for different strategic profiles and their desired performance levels. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.