International internet marketing

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A triangulation study of drivers and barriers in the business-to-business context in the United Kingdom Riyad Eid

Received February 2004 Revised January 2005 Accepted February 2005

Wolverhampton Business School, Wolverhampton, UK Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate empirically the drivers and barriers operation on the adoption of internet technology by business-to-business marketing companies that operate at the international level. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature concerning the diffusion and adoption of innovations precedes a triangulation study involving a questionnaire-based survey of 123 companies (a 59 percent response rate) and case studies of four others, all located in the UK. Data were factor-analysed, following testing for validity, reliability and adequacy of the research instrument. Findings – The paper concludes that powerful drivers of international internet-based marketing in business-to-business firms will generally outweigh significant barriers to its adoption in the future. It also explains how innovation-diffusion theory identifies factors instrumental in the adoption of internet marketing. Research limitations/implications – The study was confined to business-to-business marketers, based in the UK and operating internationally. Several suggestions are made for elaboration and extension, including investigation of business-to-consumer users and of other industry types. Practical implications – The findings provide international marketing strategists with important marketing intelligence insights into the benefits of harnessing the power of the internet, the obstacles to be expected in practice, and plans for doing so both efficiently and effectively. Originality/value – Much of what has been written about the application of the internet to marketing is speculative and exploratory. This study, based on responses from practising international marketers, offers something more substantial to marketing planners. Keywords Internet, Business-to-business marketing, International marketing, Process management Paper type Research paper

Marketing Intelligence & Planning Vol. 23 No. 3, 2005 pp. 266-280 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0263-4503 DOI 10.1108/02634500510597300

Introduction Internet marketing is heralded by some as the new paradigm of marketing – for example, Hoffman and Novak (1998), Eid and Trueman (2002, 2004), Hamill et al. (1997) and Kiani (1998). The recent rush of publications in the area may give rise to the impression that it can be applied in any context, yet there is little empirical evidence to support this. Eid and Trueman (2002) suggest that much of the current literature considers Internet marketing to be “a completely new phenomenon”. The potential of internet marketing as a technological innovation in B-to-B companies has not been studied rigorously from the perspective of the diffusion of innovations, although there are issues such as customer demand, security and top management support that can affect its adoption (Eid and Trueman, 2004; Javalgi et al., 2004). The effect of company attitudes on behaviour when it comes to making a

decision about the adoption of new technology may be particularly important in the case of internet marketing. Understanding the internal effects on the company will be of considerable importance in interpreting resistance to change by employees and correctly evaluating the merits of post-implementation strategies to reduce resistance. The study reported here aims to discover the main conflicts of interest and issues that affect the acceptance of the internet by business-to-business international marketing, and thereby to help predict its uptake in specific cases. Undoubtedly, the internet offers an array of new opportunities in the business-to-business context (Hamill et al., 1997). Evans and King (1999) defined some of the deliverable benefits as multiple marketing usage, access to commercial research, competitive intelligence, customer service, just-in-time inventory planning, sales channel knowledge, support for channel partners, image enhancement, rapid growth, global reach, around-the-clock presence, ability to target marketing efforts, cost effectiveness, up-to-the-minute information, and multimedia. Because the internet allows companies to reach foreign markets in which cultural, legal, and social systems differ widely, a company with a presence there will face new problems deriving from the diversity of markets. When entering the global market it will encounter different barriers in each country, discussed later in this paper. Inadequate policing of the internet is another major practical problem, as is information overload, both also discussed in detail later. Despite the range of factors that can be identified as inhibiting and motivating the diffusion of international internet marketing, it is not known how useful these are in explaining the adoption of international internet marketing. Few studies can provide strong theoretical or statistical support, often because of their exploratory nature, dealing more with the potential than the reality of internet use in practice. To partially fill this void, this study makes a thoroughly empirical investigation of the drivers and barriers affecting the adoption of international internet marketing (“IIM”) by business-to-business (“B-to-B”) marketers.

Literature review Rogers (1983, 1995), has defined eight types of research into the diffusion and adoption of innovations, from “earliness of knowing about innovation”, and “rate of adoption in different social systems”, to “opinion leadership”, “diffusion networks”, “communication channel use” and “consequences of innovation”. These issues may have particular significance from a marketing perspective. The first contribution of diffusion theory is the innovation decision process, which starts with knowledge about the existence of the innovation and ends with the confirmation of the decision to adopt or reject. At the knowledge stage, users are first exposed to the innovation and gain initial understanding of it. In the second and third stages, managers move from persuasion to the adopt/reject decision. The fourth and final stages are implementation and use, followed by evaluation the new system from a usefulness or fitness perspective. The second contribution of IDT is the set of innovation attributes that affect the rate of adoption. Five of these – relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, visibility and observability (Rogers, 1983) – are reported to explain between 49 and 87 per cent of variance in the rate of adoption (Rogers, 1995).

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A stream of research on innovation diffusion has been based on these attributes, which appear to have different relative impact on the rate of adoption of innovation. For example, Cooper and Zmud (1990) found that technological complexity is a significant factor inhibiting successful implementation and task-technology compatibility is a major factor in explaining adoption of new technology. Moore and Benbasat (1991) suggest seven measures of users’ perception of an IT innovation: relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, observability, complexity, image and voluntariness of use. They also developed measurement scales, which can be applied to any innovation and have been adapted in subsequent research papers (see: Moore, 1996; Karahanna and Straub, 1999). Drivers and barriers affecting internet marketing in general have been classified in various ways. For example, Avlonitis and Karayanni (2000), Eid and Trueman (2004) and Poon and Jevons (1997) examine external drivers such as global competition, international customers’ needs and developments in IT. Chan et al. (2000) discusses internal drivers, such as changes in organisational strategies and cost savings. Others deal specifically with the barriers to international internet marketing mentioned earlier and discussed in detail later (Porter, 2001; Skinner, 1999). Drivers of international internet marketing in the B-to-B context Drivers can in practice be external, internal or both. The external variety relate of course to the increased level of global competition, changes in international customers’ needs, recent developments in IT, and competition (Chan et al., 2000; Clarke and Flaherty, 2003; Cronin, 1996b; Eid and Trueman, 2004; Hollensen, 2001; Poon and Jevons, 1997; Skinner, 1999; Venkatraman and Zaheer, 1990). Internal drivers are mainly related to changes in the organisational strategies and cost-saving imperatives (Chaffey et al., 2000; Chan et al., 2000; Cronin, 1996b; Lynn et al., 2002; Mougayer, 1998; Simeon, 1999; Skinner, 1999). Perhaps one of the strongest drivers is the increasing level of competition in global markets. This has emphasised the need for organisations to innovate if they are to cope with global standards. Therefore, the main requirement for most companies seeking a competitive advantage is increased knowledge and co-ordination of processes that cross their marketing functions. Avlonitis and Karayanni (2000), Karayanni and Baltas (2003), Poon and Jevons (1997) and Venkatraman and Zaheer (1990) cast the internet in the role of a tool to dramatically improve business performance and gain or maintain a competitive position. Venkatraman and Zaheer specifically argue that a major reason for IT-based applications as potential sources of strategic advantages lies in the potential for electronic integration among a group of companies and their customers, to change the basis of market competition. Chan et al. (2000), Berezai (2000), Hamill (1997), Poon and Jevons (1997) and Skinner (1999) also believe that internet marketing is driven by the escalating, ever-changing needs of customers seeking better services and products. In fact, the growth in consumer use of the internet, for both leisure activities and as retail channel, has forced businesses to consider the internet as a business tool (Berezai, 2000). As a result, the internet has emerged from the general driving forces for e-commerce. From an initial push to improve current business processes by achieving savings and improving efficiency, companies come to be driven by a desire for greater supplier involvement and customer service (Chan et al., 2000).

A final significant driver is competitors’ use of the internet and their ability to respond to customers, which have a strong effect on the propensity to adopt the internet marketing innovation. Overall, the importance of the internet in business has increased as it becomes incorporated into many management tasks. It has an ability to bring new opportunities and facilitate the development of new organisational forms and structures that are needed to meet continuously emerging changes and challenges in the business environment (Poon and Jevons, 1997). At the same time, developments in IT oblige organisations to be up-to-date in their use of advanced technologies to speed delivery, improve the quality of information, and to increase communication and integration across business units as well as between external partners and customers (Chan et al., 2000). A further key driver is the development of software to create these systems, along with increasing awareness of the benefits that internet B-to-B marketing can deliver in practice (Berezai, 2000). New technology drives organisational change at the process, communications, and strategic levels. Changes in organisational strategy may involve use of the internet in pursuit of new strategic goals – for example, to broaden the use of existing electronic trading technology and include the internet as an alternative medium (Chan et al., 2000). In fact, many companies now have moved from using the internet to provide basic company and product information to integrating it into product and service launch strategies (Simeon, 1999). Another driver is the prospect of reducing costs by substituting the internet for other channels of communication with vendors, customers, information providers and business partners (Cronin, 1996a,b). For example, Skinner (1999) states that sellers can obtain cost savings in “finding new customers” and in reducing “administration costs” through time saving and reduction in staff numbers. Mougayer (1998) estimates that the average cost of producing and processing an invoice using a paper-based system is ten times greater than doing so electronically. Lynn et al. (2002) suggest that it might be nearly 25 per cent less costly to perform direct marketing via the internet than through conventional channels. Furthermore, since B-to-B relationships are often long term, it is worthwhile for a company to set up internet links with its business partners. The volume of transactions is often thereby increased, justifying the outlay (Chaffey et al., 2000). Barriers to international internet marketing in the B-to-B context The internet can offer many benefits today, and even more opportunities are likely to be available in the future, but this does not mean that it is a panacea that can solve all marketing problems. Many authors have identified a number of limitations that need to be addressed in marketing strategy (Evans and King, 1999; Hollensen, 2001; Merrilees and Fry, 2003; Porter, 2001; Skinner, 1999; Soh et al., 1997; Wilson and Abel, 2002). Hollensen (2001) notes that would-be global internet marketers will face barriers that are specific to each separate market, relating to language, culture, internet access, legislation and logistics. Furthermore, it is generally believed that the internet is not policed adequately; sensitive communications and confidential financial details can sometimes be intercepted or misused. Though “firewalls” may protect internal data from theft, internet users often have limited resources for data protection in the wider, challenging environment of the world wide web. Several large financial service organisations are working to define more efficient and reliable ways to secure payments, based on encryption technology.


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Another major practical barrier is information overload. The volume of information and the number of sites is growing exponentially (Wilson and Abel, 2002). There is no way at present to ensure that the wealth of information on the internet is in a meaningful format for all users. Soh et al. (1997) have found that major drawbacks to effective use of the internet are: difficulty in locating the right information, rising user cost, security and data protection. Skinner (1999) states the problem as the protection of value chains. In other words, if new companies have no existing value chains to protect, they can set up their businesses in a way that takes advantage of the internet. But companies that work in a B-to-B environment to reach end customers will need to weigh the importance of protecting current relationships with distributors and partners, and hence most of their current revenue stream, against the advantage of establishing future strategic positions and revenues. Consequently, traditional activities, often adjusted in some way, can compensate for these limitations, just as the shortcomings of traditional methods – such as lack of real time information, high cost of face to face interaction and high cost of producing physical versions of information – can be offset by using the internet technology. Frequently, in fact, a combination of internet and traditional method can be beneficial. According to Porter (2001, p. 78): Strategies that integrate the internet and traditional competitive advantages and ways of competing should win in many industries. On the demand side, most buyers will value a combination of on-line services, personal services, and physical locations over stand-alone Web distribution. They will want a choice of channels delivery options, and ways of dealing with companies. On the supply side, production and procurement will be more effective if they involve a combination of internet and traditional methods.

The value of integrating traditional and internet methods creates potential advantages for established companies. It will prove easier for them to adopt and integrate internet methods than for new “dot.coms” to adopt and integrate traditional ones. Research methodology This study adopts a triangulation methodology that mixes two principal techniques: questionnaire-based survey and interview-based case study. The instrument and the samples The survey was preceded by pilot tests and clarified as necessary by follow-up telephone calls. The pilot exercise was undertaken in January 2002, with a group of six companies. Based on results and feedback, revisions were made to the questionnaire design. The formal survey was conducted between April and July 2002. The sample consisted of 250 B-to-B companies located in the UK. A total of 123 valid returns were received, representing a 59 per cent response rate (see Table I). This is a much higher response than other surveys on this topic. Companies were

Table I. Survey response summary

Total number of questionnaires distributed Number of completed and returned questionnaires Unreachable companies Declined participation Response rate (%)

250 128 9 24 58.98

guaranteed anonymity, but would be able to establish their own positions relative to others by simple inspection of the figures and analyses. The questionnaire itself consisted of five pages of A4 paper. It asked a total of 50 multiple-choice questions, grouped into three sections: background information, internet usage, and critical success factors. Several methodological devices probably explain the high response rate achieved. The questionnaire was designed in such a way that it took only 20 minutes to complete. A personalised cover letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope were enclosed with each one sent out. Respondents were followed up as many as five times via e-mail and telephone before elimination from the sample. Finally, most companies chosen for the sample were likely to perceive their participation in the study as further evidence of their success with internet marketing. The case study was then introduced as a confirmatory and secondary source of information. As Yin (1989) observes, this type of study is exploratory in nature and sampling of case subjects is not representative of a particular population. This part of study was accordingly seen as complementary to the survey, to further assess and test the applicability of critical factors and to investigate potential benefits and challenges. The criteria for selecting participating organisations were: first, that a marketing manager was available to be interviewed: second, that the company had already used the internet for B-to-B international marketing, or was in the process of doing so: third, that cases represented different sectors. Four prominent UK companies expressed interest and met the criteria, and were duly adopted as the case subjects. They are protected here by pseudonyms. Two have already completed internet marketing projects in the international business-to-business context, and are now at the realisation stage; two are in the mid-way implementation phase. The diversity of issues represented by all four case studies has the advantage of enriching the data collected. This richness of data facilitates comparative analysis between the cases and therefore leads to theory improvement. Detailed descriptive statistics relating to the survey and case study respondents are shown in Table II. Instrument validity and reliability Discriminant validity was assessed using factor analysis. The 13 items (variables) measuring drivers and barriers were subjected to principal component factor analysis. Eigenvalues and scree plots were used to determine the number of factors to be extracted. As a further test of the appropriateness of the methodology, the Berlett Test of Sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test of adequacy were carried out. The outcome is shown in Table III. The test results indicated that the data were appropriate for factor analysis, in the sense that relationships between the variables exist and can be appropriately included in the analysis (Bryman, 1989), and that sampling adequacy was high. The 13 items loaded on the two expected factors, by the criterion of an eigenvalue greater than 1, which accounted for 59 per cent of the total variance (See Table IV). A viramax rotation was also performed. Factor loadings were greater than 0.5, compared with the value of 0.35 considered statistically significant at an alpha level of 0.05 (Hair et al., 1998). The reliability of the constructs was assessed by the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient, and exceeded the accepted standard (Nunnally, 1978). Details are to be found in Table V.


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Measure

Items

Position

Marketing manager Sales manager Export manager IT manager No Yes Fewer than 100 100-500 501-1,000 More than 1,000 Less than 2 yrs 2-3 yrs 3-4 yrs More than 4 yrs Aerospace Agriculture Chemical and allied products Computers Industrial supplies Textiles

Participation Number of employees

Years of internet use

Type of industry

Table II. Characteristics of the sample

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy Bartlett’s test of sphericity Table III. KMO and Bartlett’s test

Factor Table IV. Total variance explained

1 2

Frequency

(%)

68 32 11 12 27 96 55 46 16 6 22 29 34 38 8 14 8 40 41 12

55.3 26.0 8.9 9.8 22.0 78.0 44.7 37.4 13.0 4.9 17.9 23.6 27.6 30.9 6.5 11.4 6.5 32.5 33.3 9.8

0.835 906.662 78 0.000

Approx. chi-square df Sig.

Eigenvalue

Variance explained (%)

Cumulative variance (%)

5.0541 2.193

33.989 25.504

33.989 59.492

Findings The interpretation of the two-factor solution was accomplished by relating them to theoretical concepts of internet marketing. The first factor was found to fit very well with the B-to-B drivers, since six elements suggest a very strong incentive for internet marketing. They are: (1) customer demand (requirement); (2) reduced operating costs (marketing and production); (3) reduced sales and purchasing costs; (4) improving the range and quality of services; (5) taking advantage of being an early adopter; and (6) avoiding losing market share to competitors already using internet marketing.

Factor loading B-to-B international internet marketing drivers Improving the range and quality of services we can offer to customers online Reduced costs (sales and purchasing) Take advantage of being an early adopter Customer demand (requirement) Avoiding losing market share to competitors who are already using internet marketing Reduced operating costs (marketing and production) B-to-B international internet marketing barriers The technology costs associated with further internet marketing development are too high Your company has concerns about confidentiality Language barriers Further internet marketing development offers no tangible benefits to your company Lack of management willingness to adopt IT is an obstacle to further internet marketing development Cultural barriers The poor public telecommunications infrastructure hinders your technological advancement

Cronbach’s alpha 0.8058

0.890 0.847 0.839 0.809


0.799 0.771 0.8809 0.778 0.719 0.677 0.673 0.591 0.585 0.579

Of those, the most important variables are the range and quality of services and sales and purchasing costs. This supports other research findings that internet marketing is driven by the demands of customers seeking out better services and products (Chan et al., 2000; Berezai, 2000; Poon and Jevons, 1997; Skinner, 1999). The internet promises significant savings on other costs, such as by making it cheaper to find new customers, lowering administration costs by time saving and reduction in staff numbers, and substituting for other communication channels with vendors, information providers and business partners (Cronin, 1996a; Skinner, 1999; Mougayer, 1998; Lynn et al., 2002). The second factor contains elements that are likely to act as barriers to internet usage for marketing purposes, namely: . technology costs; . concerns about confidentiality and security; . cultural barriers; . poor public telecommunications infrastructure; . lack of management willingness to adopt IT; . language barriers; and . the possibility that internet marketing development is not relevant to a particular industry. Here, the cost of new technology costs and concerns about confidentiality and security were the most significant variables. Technology costs include subscription fees, design and development expenses, installation costs, and the expense of maintenance and time access. There are also associated costs of updating the technology and training staff. The companies that took part in the survey perceived these costs as a real problem to offset

Table V. Factor loading and Cronbach’s alpha analysis

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against the relative advantages of internet adoption. Competition among internet service providers will help to reduce subscription fees and time access costs (Soh et al., 1997) but security of financial transactions is likely to remain one of the prevailing concerns in achieving efficient and trustworthy online commerce. This is of critical importance if the internet is to make any serious impact in international business (Samiee, 1998). However, the problems are well recognised within the e-commerce community, and a number of technologies exist that can be used to reassure the stakeholders involved. The significance-test result shown in Table VI exhibit very significant variation from the mid-point of 3.0 ( p , 0.01). This confirms that all drivers are on the positive side and all barriers on the negative side. Consequently, we can safely accept our contention that drivers will prevail over barriers in influencing the rate of adoption. Discussion These results are consistent with previous studies such as Berezai (2000), Chan et al. (2000), Hamill (1997), Poon and Jevons (1997), and Skinner (1999) who see internet marketing being driven by customer needs. For example, the Oilco case-study respondent noted that: . . . generally our customers are up with technology. So they really want to be able to view us on the internet, and especially on the export side as well. People from abroad don’t want to be telephoning us with time differences, they want to go on the internet, look it up, get the information that they want, so it’s definitely something that the company needs to use.

Similarly, the need to avoid losing market share to competitors is a key incentive, since this research has found that competitors’ use of the internet and response to customers also has a strong, (driving) effect on the adoption of the internet for marketing purposes (See Figure 1). Test value ¼ 3 t

Table VI. One sample test of statistical significance

Customer demand Reduced operating costs Reduced sales and purchasing costs Improving the range and quality of services Take advantage of being an early adopter Avoiding losing market share to competitors Confidentiality Cultural barriers High technology costs Telecommunications infrastructure Management support Language barriers Not relevant

df

Sig. (two-tailed)

95% confidence Mean interval of the difference difference Lower Upper

8.216 122 6.860 122

0.000 0.000

0.7398 0.6992

0.5616 0.4974

0.9181 0.9009

3.304 122

0.001

0.3496

0.1402

0.5590

9.250 122

0.000

0.9024

0.7093

1.0956

6.131 122

0.000

0.6341

0.4294

0.8389

8.136 – 10.062 – 10.727 – 9.909

122 122 122 122

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.7967 – 0.8862 – 0.8862 – 0.8537

0.6029 – 1.0605 – 1.0497 – 1.0242

0.9906 – 0.7118 – 0.7226 – 0.6831

– 10.661 – 15.589 – 15.265 – 13.870

122 122 122 122

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

– 0.8699 – 1.2764 – 1.2114 – 1.3252

– 1.0315 – 1.4385 – 1.3685 – 1.5143

– 0.7084 – 1.1143 – 1.0543 – 1.1361


Figure 1. Drivers

At the same time, the need to improve the range and quality of services relates to the finding of Chan et al. (2000), that IT developments are forcing organisations to be up-to-date in their use of advanced technologies regarding delivery of speedy and high quality information, as well as facilitating greater degrees of communication and integration across business units and external partners. This finding is further supported by the case study data. At Electrico, for example, the decision to adopt the internet was taken to improve customer service and increase efficiency in the marketing channel. The company treated international internet marketing as a high priority, and the e-commerce marketing manager held a project meeting every month. Petrolco’s decision to use the internet was also based on the customer needs. Its internet marketing manager noted that: . . . the key push behind the internet actually hasn’t been about getting more customers, it’s been about serving our customers that we have better and better facilitating their information requests and their needs.

The increasing awareness of the benefits such as reduction of sales and purchasing cost that B-to-B companies can obtain from using the internet is a key driver in itself, as suggested by Berezai (2000). Petrolco’s decision to use the internet was based largely on the need to reduce marketing costs. As the internet manager put it: . . . it is so much cheaper than, let’s say, doing print runs, and it’s also more effective because obviously the internet is a dynamic medium and it’s much easier to keep up-to-date, because obviously if something changes, it’s very easy to go in and make that change on a web site. Obviously, if you’ve printed a piece of literature, as soon as that goes out of date, you’ve got to scrap all your literature, reprint and I think one of the key drivers was cost.

Furthermore, changes in organisational strategy may involve some internet use to achieve the new business goals and take advantage of being an early adopter. For

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Figure 2. Barriers

instance, the organisation may broaden the use of existing electronic trading technology to include the internet as an alternative medium for communication with new as well as existing customers (Chan et al., 2000). Finally, reducing operating costs in marketing and production by substituting the internet for other more expensive communications channels in which vendors, customers, information providers and business partners can interact effectively, is an important driver observed by previous researchers such as Cronin (1996a). By contrast, it was surprising to find that barriers to adoption were all at the lower end of the scale, as shown in Figure 2. This is perhaps because, nowadays, many of them have been successfully addressed generally. All countries are changing fast; even the Third World is gradually upgrading its infrastructures and harnessing the internet. Simultaneously, a number of technologies have been developed to deal with security problems (Furnell and Karweni, 1999; Chellappa and Pavlou, 2002). All interviewees in participating companies agreed that security is of critical importance if the internet is to make any serious impact in the international business. The preferred solution was Netscape’s Secure Sockets Layer technology, used by three of respondents. This further support the findings of Lee (1998), that security concern has been over-stated because the technology of public key cryptography, which is widely available at reasonable costs, has reached a level of maturity sufficient to tackle typical security concerns. Managerial attitudes were not found to be a key barrier. All company respondents agreed that top management provided enough resources and supported use of the internet for international marketing. Nevertheless, they were clear that top

management’s support was indispensable to successful implementation. The internet manager and e-business strategy manager at Electrico noted that: . . . I think with any internet activity, if you don’t have top management support, then you don’t get the budgets and you don’t get the resources.

Many tools have been introduced to address the language problem. For example, a leading global company offering air express and ground-shipping delivery services delivers specific e-service information to its international customers, which is designed for ease of use and consistent availability. All of its offerings are linked together at one site, and made easily convertible to a local view (Javalgi et al., 2004). Each company in the case study sample has its own way to address this problem. Petrolco and Textileco use English as the basic language for their home sites, and translation at the local level. The managing director at Textileco noted: . . . I think if we want to sell to somebody in France, then . . . we have to go speak French. I mean, we do, and it has to be also on the web page.

Electrico, on the other hand, has a local-language web site for each country. Oilco’s solution is to use a selection of widely spoken languages, as a response to its larger distributors. The conclusion would seem to be that this particular barrier is not a serious obstacle to adoption of the internet for international marketing of services. To sum up, B-to-B companies are driven to adopt the internet because of the incentives or gains achievable, which outweigh disadvantages regardless of the hypothetical barriers that might decrease its use. This conclusion is supported by the findings of Davis (1989), that companies are often willing to cope with some limited problems and difficulties in a system that provides critically needed functionality. Conclusions and recommendations Undoubtedly, internet marketing has emerged and developed in response to many drivers, and four in particular. First, the driving forces of e-commerce have transformed from an initial push to improve current business processes by cost savings and improved efficiency to a desire for greater supplier involvement and customer service in later implementation. Second, competitors’ practices also have a strong effect on the adoption of the internet for marketing purposes. Third, the importance of the internet increases as a result of its improving ability to bring new opportunities and facilitate the development of the new organisational forms and structures needed to meet the continuously emerging changes in business imperatives. Finally, IT developments are also obliging organisations to be up-to-date in their use of advanced technologies, as well as facilitating greater degrees of communication and integration across business units and external partners. However, one effect of the internet is to give users access to foreign markets, in which he economic, political and social infrastructures differ widely. Numerous practical barriers are therefore encountered, and have to be dealt with. Moreover, the internet as a whole presents problems of security and information overload. Nevertheless, many companies are successfully using this medium to market their products and services and increase brand awareness all over the world (Palumbo and Herbig, 1998). For example, the international package-delivery service mentioned earlier has implemented a system that will track every part of the transaction on a daily basis,


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and permit customers to communicate with it via a web site or’ a call centre. A customer satisfaction rate of 82 per cent has been achieved (Scullin et al., 2004). Many experts suggest that the future will be dominated by internet commerce (Gurau et al., 2001; Eid et al., 2002). This optimistic vision must not be allowed to disguise practical considerations and the need for integration of new and traditional marketing practices. Nevertheless, the internet allows companies of all sizes to reach international markets at an affordable cost. In so doing, it has reduced to manageable levels the barriers to adoption faced by small and specialist companies in particular. A logical progression of this study would be to carry out a similar investigation of internet adoption in concerning business-to-consumer companies, and compare results. Further variables, such a web cast technology and e-mail privacy regulation could be included. Future research should also investigate variation in the perceived importance of drivers and barriers across industry types. Given improved understanding of the issues involved in international B-to-B internet marketing, managers will be able to make informed decisions and allocate the necessary resources to make its implementation a success in the long term.

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