Do market leaders lead in business innovation?
Subtitle: The case of e-business adoption
By: Kristina S. McElheran
Contributors: Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 10-104; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 10-104.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2011
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 35
Description: This paper investigates the relationship between market position and the adoption of IT-enabled process innovations. Prior research has focused overwhelmingly on product innovation and garnered mixed empirical support. I extend the literature into the understudied area of business process innovation, developing a framework for classifying innovations based on the complexity, interdependence, and customer impact of the underlying business process. I test the framework's predictions in the context of e-buying and e-selling adoption. Leveraging detailed U.S. Census data, I find robust evidence that market leaders were significantly more likely to adopt the incremental innovation of e-buying but commensurately less likely to adopt the more radical practice of e-selling. The findings highlight the strategic significance of adjustment costs and co-invention capabilities in technology adoption, particularly as businesses grow more dependent on new technologies for their operational and competitive performance.
Notes: "June 2010, revised April 2011" -- Publisher's website.

"February 2011" -- added t.p.

Includes bibliographical references.