Firm capabilities, timing of Internet adoption and performance

This dissertation integrates studies based on the "resource-based view of the firm" and research that looks at first mover advantage. Such integration could help identify key factors that explain successful adoption of the Internet. Historically these two streams of literature have evolved as prominent but independent research streams (Lieberman and Montgomery 1998).;Previous marketing strategy literature based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has assumed that industry structures are relatively stable, market boundaries are clear, the players are well known, and capabilities are linear processes that are easy to sustain. I relax the above assumptions to allow for new situations where industry structures are not stable, market boundaries are not clear, and the set of players is ambiguous and shifting. Hypotheses are developed under the specific context of Internet adoption to explain the roles of capabilities, timing and their interaction in affecting successful market entry.;The different types of capabilities studied here are defined as follows. Some capabilities, like capability in managing the flow of information and flow of merchandise (operations system for retailers), have a more internal emphasis and Day (1994) referred to them as inside-out capabilities; some like capability in managing the buying, pricing, and promoting of merchandise (marketing activities for retailers), have a more external emphasis and Day referred to them as outside-in capabilities; still others, e.g. order fulfillment capability (for example, in the managing of web/store design for retailers) and customer service capability (for example, in the managing of customer complaints) involve both an internal and an external emphasis, and Day referred to them as spanning capabilities.;My hypotheses and findings are as follows. First of all, this dissertation proposes and shows that sometimes capabilities alone are enough for successful adoption of the Internet, but not always. Second, the paper proposes and finds that timing by itself plays a critical role in the explanation of successful Internet adoption in some Internet markets, but not always. Finally, it is suggested and shown that timing provides one contingency that makes the same amount of capability more effective in maximizing firm performance in some Internet markets, but not always.