E-business initiatives and IT infrastructure: An empirical study of the US manufacturing industry

In this study we propose a set of e-commerce variables to measure Internet initiatives, collect data about these measures, and examine their relationships to performance variables at the firm level. Grounded in the resource-based theory of the firm, a series of hypotheses are developed to test the presence (or absence) of the Internet effects in terms of whether e-business initiatives, in conjunction with a firm's IT infrastructure, are associated with performance measures such as gross margin, cost reduction, and supply chain efficiency. Our empirical findings highlight the role of path dependence and complementary resources for the effectiveness of electronic business.