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This paper examines the depth, erudition, and rigor of contemporary research on knowledge management as a causal factor that influences the ultimate outcome of multinational corporation (MNC) expansion, bounded by the confines of information and communication technology (ICT) competences identified as behavioral, business, and technological. Through discussion highlighting the dominant knowledge management (KM) research themes within the milieu of the global firm, readers will gain definitive and practical insight into relevant topics that may be used to stimulate development of growth strategies for the firm.

The purpose of this research is to pursue two major objectives. First, to identify the key design variables for building successful transactional SME (Small Medium Enterprises) websites. Second, the transactional relevance of each key design variable is tested in order to establish priorities.

The present paper is developed through seven consumer focus groups. Two approaches were used: an ethnographic summary of each focus group (qualitative approach) and a systematic coding procedure (quantitative approach).

The findings indicate that a transactional website should have three main strong points: it must be secure; price information should be provided; and a wide range of images should be shown. But not all these factors are equally important.

These results lead one to recommend that managers should expend more effort to make the website more secure and detailed in terms of content. Second, even e‐services have not obtained the highest relevance but this does not mean that service quality is less important.

Most studies to date have focused on dealing with different design elements in isolation. In this framework, the role of website security or navigability has been the most studied element in the literature. However, comparison between the different design elements is still lacking, especially from a qualitative research perspective. This work tries to cover that gap, by providing a hierarchy of website design factors based on their capacity to stimulate SME sales.