E-business adoption in marketing and its relationship with factors in SWOT analysis: An empirical investigation of small software businesses

This research gives empirically grounded insights into e-business adoption in conjunction with factors usually considered in SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis in Austrian micro and small to medium sized software enterprises. The study evaluates the degree in which the Internet is used in supporting the firm's primary activities in marketing and sales based on primary data collected from 141 Austrian software firms. The results show that internet usage in this area is dependent on the size of the company. While almost all small to medium sized enterprises apply e-business to some degree, many micro enterprises do not seek to utilise possible potentials. The study reveals that firms perceiving their relative strengths on branding, pricing, product diversity, internationalisation, and access to new technologies have adopted more advanced e-business support. From the external perspective, organisations more intensively relying on e-business tend to experience less competitive pressure, have lower capital resources, and consider international markets more often as business opportunities than their competitors.