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This paper aims to conduct research to examine the impact of Internet adoption on the productivity of firms in non-urban China.

The study investigates the impact of Internet adoption on firms' productivity in non-urban China. More specifically, the authors conduct a comprehensive and rigorous study while addressing concerns related to firm-level endogeneity by utilizing firm-level panel data. Information on firms in non-urban areas is collected from China's Annual Surveys of Industrial Firm data. For robustness, the authors implement the instrumental variables approach and propensity score matching estimations to strengthen the evidence for suggestive causal inference. Furthermore, the authors also examine the mechanisms and group heterogeneity.

Evidence indicate that the adoption of Internet technology positively impacts the total factor productivity (TFP) of firms in non-urban areas. According to the heterogeneity analysis, the marginal effect of Internet adoption is more significant and pronounced for labor-intensive, private and small-scale manufacturing firms. Moreover, additional evidence suggest that Internet adoption is beneficial for non-urban firms in expanding their business and enlarging their market. It has also been found that the positive effect of Internet adoption on firms' TFP is amplified by expanding public infrastructure.

The current study supports that the informatization strategy benefits non-urban firms and promotes rural revitalization. The findings suggest the possibility of firms borrowing market size from the closest cities and supporting the ongoing policies of investing in broadband infrastructure to narrow the urban-rural digital gap in China.

This paper aims to investigate how value drivers of internet medical business model affect value creation through a configurational approach. The internet medical business model (IMBM) is such a business model that integrates online and offline medical services with the driving force of internet technologies covering prediagnosis, in-diagnosis and postdiagnosis. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the support of national policies have boosted the development of internet health care. However, there are still many challenges in practice, such as the unclear innovation path, as well as difficulties in landing and profiting. Academic research has not yet provided sufficient theoretical insights. Therefore, to better explain and guide practice, it is urgent to clarify the innovation path and mechanism of value creation for IMBM.

Based on the sample of 58 internet medical firms in China, this paper adopts fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the configurational effects of IMBM’s value drivers on value creation.

Building on the business model canvas and the characteristics of internet health care, five value drivers of IMBM are identified, namely, functional value proposition, emotional value proposition, user involvement, resource capabilities and connection properties. And the five value drivers form three configurations, which are, respectively, labeled as resource-driven configuration, user-operated configuration and product-combined configuration. From the perspective of the integration of traditional and emerging theories, such as resource-based view, internet economics and value cocreation, each configuration leads to value creation and improves value results with different mechanisms behind it.

First, combined with the business model canvas and the characteristics of internet health care, this paper identifies five value drivers of IMBM, thus improving the relevant research on internet health care. Second, based on the configurational effects, this paper discusses the mechanism behind the configurational effects of IMBM’s value drivers on value creation, thus expanding relevant research on the value creation of business models. Third, applying fsQCA and combining the advantages of qualitative research and quantitative research, this paper adds to the configurations of IMBM’s value drivers that achieve high-value results.

This paper aims to provide a survey of existing literature on the economic impacts of the internet on firm development, and outlines an overall framework of the existing studies. The purpose is to show how the internet affects firm development, which may help policymakers and other researchers to have a better knowledge of existing research characteristics, problems and future directions.

The authors review the studies on the economic impacts of the internet on firm characteristics and external environment, identify the characteristics of the existing literature and problems and discuss the directions of possible future research.

The authors find that the impacts of the internet on firm development mainly display two relevant mechanisms (firm characteristics and external environment), and they can be grouped into six channels (firm innovation, firm business mode, firm performance, firm productivity, firm import and export trade and firm location selection).

This study builds up a framework of how the internet impacts on firm development, which can add value to the future research of firm intelligent transaction modes in the crowd intelligence network.

This study investigates key factors that influence the utilization of the internet by internationalizing firms in one transition market, Vietnam.

A systematic sample of 306 internationalizing firms in Ho Chi Minh City was surveyed to test the theoretical model. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data.

This study finds that the two key concepts in the technology acceptance model (TAM), perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the internet, can be used to predict internet utilization by organizations. Market orientation is also a predictor of internet utilization. Learning orientation facilitates perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the internet by internationalizing firms, and hence its utilization.

Further research is needed to investigate other antecedents as well as outcomes of internet utilization by internationalizing firms.

This study suggests that programmes for the assistance and training of internationalizing firms should promote the usefulness and ease of use of the internet, and foster market orientation and learning orientation, in order to stimulate them to use the Internet effectively in the pursuit of marketing success in international markets.

This study expands the explanatory power of the TAM in predicting the utilization of the Internet by internationalizing firms.

While the internet enjoys increasing interest regarding its potential to extend the global reach of firms, especially small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs), little work has been done on the viability of the internet as a new and effective path to internationalization. Specifically, it is unclear how the internet can successfully support export marketing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers and performance outcomes of two patterns of internet use supporting export marketing: the internet as an alternative to a physical presence and the internet as a sales channel.

Data were collected from 115UK‐based SMEs involved in “active online internationalization”. Relationships are examined in a “soft‐modeling” partial least squares (PLS) analysis.

The findings suggest that online channel support positively enhances export performance for SMEs. Yet, the use of the internet as an alternative to a physical market presence does not lead to higher export performance. Specifically, born‐global firms that are relying too much on the internet are prone to fall into the “virtuality trap”. Entrepreneurial firms that use the internet as a sales channel can improve their overall performance, however.

This paper provides some empirical evidence of the existence of the notion of the “virtuality trap”. The paper also shows that the internet can serve a valuable complementary role. Traditional exporters are likely to use the internet as a complement to, and thus to support, existing physical operations.

Managers should focus on relationship building and on‐site learning, instead of putting too much emphasis on the internet as a substitute for a physical market presence.

The authors develop a framework and explore previously untested relationships that suggest the internet may play a complementary role in firm internationalization.

Technology has profoundly transformed the international business environment, particularly regarding the flow of information and the way in which knowledge is acquired and shared. Yet, the extent of this transformation is still underappreciated. The purpose of this paper is to examine how small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner/founders acquire and utilize knowledge for internationalization via internet-enabled platforms.

The empirical analysis draws on multiple case study methodology to examine 13 Australian SME owner/founders and the knowledge they acquire from utilization of internet-enabled platforms.

The analysis reveals four differing types of internet-enabled experiences: “technical internet-enabled experiences,” “operational internet-enabled experiences,” “functional internet-enabled experiences,” and “immersive internet-enabled experiences.” The findings indicate that internet-enabled experiences can generate both explicit and tacit forms of knowledge for the pre, early and later phases of internationalization.

The findings provide a structured approach by allowing SMEs to “plot” themselves against the classification of internet-enabled experiences to denote their level of technological involvement, and for discerning the types of knowledge that can be acquired. The findings are particularly helpful for owner/founders, highlighting that internet-enabled platforms are affecting the ways in which knowledge can be acquired and applied to international businesses processes.

The findings extend the conventional notion of knowledge acquisition for international business by highlighting how information and knowledge can be acquired via internet-enabled platforms. The findings lay the necessary groundwork for building an evidence base and theoretically extending the concept of knowledge acquisition via internet-enabled platforms.

The paper aims to explore the influential path of internet marketing capabilities impacting international market performance. The paper further investigates the mitigating roles of market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors and knowledge internalization in this relationship. The effect of internet use for customer management on internet marketing capabilities is also examined.

A total of 618 firms with sales in international markets were approached to participate. Data were collected from a sample of 132 Taiwanese firms and analyzed using a structural equation model.

Use of internet for customer management positively influences internet marketing capabilities. The results also support the positive impacts of internet marketing capabilities on market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors. Knowledge internalization mediates the relationships between market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors and international market performance.

This paper’s investigation of the role of internet marketing capability in international market performance contributes to online internationalization, strategic orientations and organizational learning theory.

Managers should focus on developing internet marketing capabilities in management culture and fostering market- and entrepreneurial-oriented behaviors to facilitate knowledge internalization for better international performance.

This paper contributes to the construction of an alternative and comprehensive mechanism to understand the influences of internet marketing capabilities on the firm’s international performance.

At the core of an international marketing strategy is the internet firm's goal of building and sustaining a competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrative framework to explain the role that customer behavior and customer relationship management (CRM) play in developing a profitable, sustainable competitive advantage for internet companies.

The integrative framework utilizes existing theoretical concepts from the areas of strategy and internet marketing and develops a framework to provide firms with insights into how they can gain the competitive advantage.

This paper links global customer behavior to the firms' business value chain and provides guidelines for strategic implications. In this conceptual paper, it is discussed that understanding consumer decision‐making behavior on the web and managing these relationships are critically important to achieve a superior performance.

This is not empirical research. A theoretical model is presented for future testing by researchers using statistical techniques such as structural equation modeling.

The framework provides managerial insights into building and sustaining a competitive advantage using a consumer‐centric approach, coupled with CRM technology on a global scale. Managerial value is derived by providing an understanding of the link between a sustainable competitive advantage, customer‐focused strategies, consumers' needs and wants, the firm's performance, and shareholder value.

It is important for global marketers to understand how consumer decision‐making on the web affects strategic and financial performance. This paper extends the current literature by integrating consumer decision behavior on the web, CRM, and the firms' performance. This framework explains the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage using customer‐focused strategies to develop customer loyalty for superior firm performance.

Realizing that the Internet is a source of information and the possibility to transform it into knowledge, this study develops an IBK-Internalization process in which internationalizing firms in transition markets utilize the Internet to search for information about foreign markets, to assess its relevance, and then, to internalize it for their internationalization. It is found that IBK-Internalization underlies international orientation and foreign sales intensity, which in turn, has a reciprocal effect on IBK-Internalization. Further, learning orientation facilitates the IBK-Internalization process. These findings suggest that internationalizing firms should promote and value the IBK-Internalization process in order to mitigate their lack of foreign market knowledge.

This chapter contributes to the ongoing debate about how digitalisation affects the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs). By applying the Uppsala Internationalisation Process model, this chapter examines the impact of e-commerce on the internationalisation of SMEs. The study uses a unique dataset, which includes 14,513 SMEs across several sectors in 34 countries. The results show that firms using the Internet as a means to provide information about the firm exhibit a higher degree of internationalisation, while using the Internet to facilitate transactions was found to have a positive impact on the ratio of foreign sales to the total sales; however, these foreign sales are likely to be concentrated in less regions/markets. Furthermore, perceived export barriers were found to be a significant moderator of the effects of e-commerce usage on international intensity and international diversification. This suggests that e-commerce does not automatically facilitate the internationalisation of SMEs.