جهت گیری بازاریابی الکترونیکی در زمینه شرکت های کوچک و متوسط Electronic Marketing Orientation in the SMEs Context

Introduction Research indicates that e-marketing offers Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SMEs) a series of advantages, such as increased profitability via reduced costs and more extensive reach, while simultaneously offering better services to clients (Ainin et al., 2015; Caniëls et al., 2015). Nevertheless, it remains a normal experience that we click into a website of one SME (e.g. local fast food chain) and find advanced online services through multiple digital channels, including mobile applications and social media networks. A competitor of similar size in the same industry and country might only have a simple Facebook page that provides a basic description of products and contact addresses. These and other related differences can be measured objectively via SMEs respective degrees of Electronic Marketing Orientation (hereinafter referred to as EMO). Given its benefits, e-marketing is gaining increasing importance for SMEs, which has led to a stream of research that employs an innovation perspective in understanding emarketing adoption levels (e.g. Braojos-Gomez, 2015; Dholakia and Kshetri, 2004; Ifinedo, 2011; Levenburg et al. 2015). However, it has been argued that innovation theories are limited to simple technologies and apply less well to complex and converging technologies (Shaltoni and West, 2010; Simmons et al., 2011). The orientation perspective in SMEs can provide a better understanding of e-marketing adoption because SMEs face unique challenges when they embrace digital technologies. More specifically, it can be argued that EMO plays a bigger role in the case of SMEs because decision makers act on the basis of opportunism, heuristics and business orientations (Bengtsson et al., 2007; Byers and Slack, 2001). Despite the increasing interest in the role of business orientations in explaining why organizations vary in their involvement in e-marketing (e.g. Chen and Huang, 2016; Habibi et al., 2015; Sürer and Mutlu, 2015; Shaltoni and West, 2010; Valos et al., 2015), there is still no evidence of EMO and its dynamics in the SMEs context. The main aim of this paper is to fill this research gap through analyzing EMO in SMEs and validating it as a high order construct. Central to this understanding will be the identification of the factors that may shape SMEs’ EMO, and consequently, their involvement in e-marketing. The paper starts by explaining Electronic Marketing Orientation. After that, the antecedents of EMO are presented and hypotheses introduced. The methodology is then discussed and followed by the findings. The paper concludes with implications and future research.