Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

Factors inuencing corporate web site adoption:

a time-based assessment
Robert C. Beattya, J.P. Shimb, Mary C. Jonesc,*
a

Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA

Department of Management and Information Systems, Mississippi State University, Box 9581, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
c
Business Computer Information Systems, College of Business Administration, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA
b

Received 16 September 1999; received in revised form 23 March 2000; accepted 19 June 2000

Abstract
Although the World Wide Web (Web) has become one of the most widely used information technologies, research indicates
that there are many rms that are still considering whether to establish a Web presence. This study presents results from a
survey of 286 medium-to-large US rms that have adopted corporate Web sites. Findings reveal signicant differences in the
reasons that these rms decided to adopt Web technology depending on when the rm made the adoption decision; early
adopters placed more emphasis on perceived benets and compatibility of the Web with existing technology and
organizational norms than did later adopters. This paper also discusses ndings for practitioners. Finally, some implications
for the future of the eld are discussed. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: World Wide Web; Information technology adoption; Electronic commerce

1. Introduction
Few topics have received as much attention as the
World Wide Web (Web) in the IT eld. The Web has
quickly become one of the most important mediums
for the sharing of business information among rms
(business-to-business, B2B) and between rms and
their customers (business-to-consumer, B2C) [16,63].
Organizations are now able to share information and
process transactions electronically with organizations
and individuals without the need for a formal business
relationship. The steady growth and development
of the Web has prompted many rms to reassess
and redesign the way they share critical business
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: 1-662-325-1991;

fax: 1-662-325-8651.
E-mail address: mjones@cobilan.msstate.edu (M.C. Jones).

information [25,49]. Existing business assumptions

and practices are often transformed to address the
opportunities available through this new technology
[64]. The speed and connectivity that are an inherent
part of doing business on the Web can provide rms
with both operational and administrative benets that
can improve the rm's overall competitive position
[3,24,50].
Web sites offer an array of potential benets to
rms, including reduced transaction, advertising, and
distribution costs, elimination of third party intermediaries, reduced time to complete transactions, and the
ability to monitor customer choices and gather market
intelligence [19]. Other benets include the ability to
deliver timely information to stakeholders and to offer
customized advertising, promotion, and customer services [34,52]. Finally, Web sites provide certain operational benets related to reduced clerical errors,

0378-7206/01/$ see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 7 2 0 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 6 4 - 1

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

overhead costs, and faster response to new market

opportunities [35,59]. The emerging importance of
this technology has resulted in a growing volume of
research about Web innovation [15,17,31,33,47].
Because the Web is a relatively new vehicle for
sharing information, much of the research is descriptive, often anecdotal, accounts of the technical development and application of Web sites [43,48]. Other
work has provided a conceptual overview of the
potential impact that Web sites have on both organizational information sharing and established business
practices.
Recently, several empirical studies have focused on
individual consumer preferences and organizational
perceptions of the Web, particularly with regard to
information acquisition and Web utilization [53].
These studies have made valuable contributions to
our understanding of Web utilization and implementation, yet they provide little insight into the extent to
which specic factors impact the decision to establish
a corporate Web site. Even though organizational Web
sites are common, there are still a large number of
rms that do not have one [11]. Because the Web is
rapidly becoming a routine way of providing information and establishing links to customers, rms that do
not have sites may be at a distinct disadvantage in the
near future [27]. Insight into the factors that have
inuenced other rms' decisions to adopt at distinct
points in time may provide useful information to rms
that have not yet adopted or who are reassessing their
original decisions.
This study examines the organizational and marketplace factors that inuence organizations to establish a
presence on the Web. Specically, the research question that guides this examination is whether the
importance of these factors is related to the time that
a rm established its Web site. A primary objective is
to provide rms with insight into why other rms have
adopted the technology. In addition, because theory
indicates that after adoption, adopters seek reinforcement of their decision [46], another objective is to
provide rms that have a Web site with a basis on
which to assess their original adoption decision. For
example, rms considering whether to expand their
existing site may be able to use these ndings to help
them determine what was important in the initial
adoption, and thereby help target areas of strength
for support of the expansion. The last objective is to

provide a basis on which future research about Web

innovation can be conducted.
2. Theoretical background
Because Web adoption has occurred over time,
rms may have decided to use it for different reasons.
For example, rms that adopted early may have
recognized the benets sooner, and may have seen
the Web as a way to gain competitive advantage.
However, theory indicates that, as time goes by, an
organizing vision or `focal community idea for the
application of IT in organizations' is formed [51]. As a
larger number of rms adopt a technology, the technology becomes legitimized, and rather than asking
`why do it', rms begin to ask `who is doing it' and
`why are not we doing it'. Later adopters may place
less emphasis on perceived benets and compatibility
of the technology, and develop a Web site largely in
order not to be left behind other rms in their industry.
Therefore, a time-based theory seems appropriate as
one way to study Web adoption. One such theory is the
diffusion of innovations, which posits that organizations within an established social environment do not
all adopt a specic innovation at the same time.
Instead, a rm's relative innovativeness determines
when it adopts an innovation compared with other
organizations in its social system. In this study, the
social system can be broadly dened as the population
of organizations that compete in industries in which
the Web has some role in the way business is conducted. Because knowledge and usage of the Web
quickly became widespread across industries, irrespective of size, location, or product, it seems that
the social system can be appropriately dened in this
way rather than by limiting it to more narrowly dened
groups such as industry or size of rm.
Diffusion of innovations theory suggests, it is possible to classify organizations into ve adopter categories based on the point in time when they adopt the
innovation relative to other organizations in their
particular social system (see Fig. 1).
Because organizations adopt at different times,
organizations in each of the adopter categories are
believed to differ in their perceptions of general
organizational attributes of the innovation. Of those
attributes, relative advantage [2,18], compatibility

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

339

strated to underlie a variety of technology innovations

in a wide variety of settings [54]. Therefore, this
theory provides one broad framework that guides
our exploration of organizational and marketplace
factors that inuence the Web adoption process, irrespective of intended Web usage. We also rely on prior
research on the adoption of related electronic commerce technologies and of IT in general to guide our
work.
Fig. 1. Adopter categories. source: [46].

[37,40,41], and complexity have been found to signicantly inuence the adoption of systems technologies [54]. Although Rogers' model also includes
trialability and observability, these have not been as
widely addressed in studies of IT innovation at the
organizational unit of analysis. Therefore, although
we borrow inspiration and general guidance from the
diffusion of innovations theory, we also rely on other
research models that more specically address IT
adoption. Research has expanded this theory to
include additional organizational attributes that may
inuence the adoption of IS innovations [13,30,60].
These include top management support [21,23,44],
technical compatibility/incompatibility [39], and
complexity of the technology [6].
This study does not attempt to distinguish between
adopters based on the way in which they planned to
use the Web (e.g. to primarily provide information, to
interact largely with customers, or to conduct B2B).
We wish to assess Web adoption among a variety of
industries, yet Web usage differs between industries.
For example, rms in the retail industry may use the
Web largely as a promotional/sales vehicle, whereas
other rms, such as those in the petroleum or industrial
products industries, produce products that do not lend
themselves to direct sales. However, the latter do use
Web sites to provide information to end consumers
and other external stakeholders and to exchange transactions with business trading partners. In order to
compare adoption decisions across time, and ensure
comparability across industries, a general framework
that has been shown to assess the adoption processes
of various other technological innovations seems to be
the most appropriate. The factors posited by the
diffusion of innovations theory have been demon-

3. A model of web site adoption

Five factors were identied as potential facilitators
of corporate Web site adoption. These are perceived
benets, compatibility (organizational and technical),
complexity, and management support.
The constructs that were selected were chosen
because of their relative importance in other studies
on electronic commerce technologies, and articles
that discuss the potential benets of Web adoption.
Table 1 provides a summary of such prior research.
Possible relationships between these constructs and
the Web site adoption process over time are shown in
Fig. 2.
3.1. Perceived benefits
An organization will only choose to adopt an innovation if it perceives that doing so will provide greater
benets than existing methods. Perceived benets
have been empirically shown to impact technology
adoption (e.g. [2]). The organization must perceive
that the adoption will either resolve existing problems
or provide new business opportunities. Perceived benets include reduced transaction costs, improved cash
ow, increased productivity, and better customer service. Others include increased ability to compete,
reaching new customers, better relationships with
existing customers, and improved operational efciency.
Those who were quicker to adopt may have believed
they would benet more than would the later adopters.
The following is hypothesized:
Hypothesis 1. Earlier adopters place greater importance on perceived benefits of having a Web site than
do later adopters.

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

Table 1
Operationalization of research variables
Variable

Question numbers
(Appendix A)

Operationalization

Source(s)

Cronbach's
coefficient a

Top management support

13

Mean of three items

[12,21,23]

0.95

Compatibility
Organizational
Technical

48
912

Mean of five items

Mean of four items

[12,20]
[39]

0.83
0.79

Complexity

1314

Mean of two items

0.79

Perceived benetits

1522

Mean of eight items

([12], Zaltman, Duncan

and Holbeck, 1973)
[2,12]

N/Aa

N/A: indicates that coefficient a values were not calculated.

3.2. Organizational compatibility

Compatibility is another facilitator [9,10,42]. Organizations are more likely to adopt a technology if they
perceive that it is consistent with their culture, values,
preferred work practices, and existing IS infrastructure. Because the adoption of electronic commerce
technologies often requires adopting rms to modify
existing business practices and processes to gain
benets, organizational compatibility can impact the

rm's adoption decision. There is a positive relationship between organizational compatibility and e-commerce technology adoption. Thus, the speed with
which a rm establishes a Web site may also be
inuenced by the rm's perception of the impact that
a Web site will have on its cultural norms and business
practices. Hence,
Hypothesis 2. The Web is perceived as more organizationally compatible by earlier than by later adopters.

Fig. 2. Web site adoption model.

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

3.3. Technical incompatibility

The extent to which IS innovation can be readily
integrated into the organization's existing IS environment is also important to the rm's adoption decision.
Incompatibility of an innovation with a rm's existing
hardware, software, networking, or telecommunications architecture may inhibit adoption. Because Web
site technology may require that organizations modify
their IS technical infrastructure, organizations must
assess the impact of having a Web site on current and
future processing. There is evidence that IS managers
are reluctant to involve their staff in Web development, because they lack familiarity with a vision for
the technology. They also view the Web as incompatible with existing technologies. Thus, technological
incompatibility seems a more appropriate term for this
construct. Firms that perceive that the technology for a
Web site can be readily integrated into the rm's
existing IS architecture may be more likely to rapidly
adopt. Hence,
Hypothesis 3. The Web is perceived to be more
technically incompatible by later adopters than by
earlier ones.
3.4. Complexity
Complexity is the degree of difculty in understanding an innovation. The introduction of a new
technology can be intimidating for organizational
employees, particularly if it requires them to change
their existing business practices or acquire new
skills. The adoption means that the organization
must integrate telecommunications and network
application development software into its existing
IT infrastructure. Many IS managers view the Web as
something that will add complexity. Rather than
viewing the Web as a `solution to their interconnectivity problems (they view it) as adding to them'
([22], p. 105).
Depending on the rm's experience with e-commerce technologies and their employees' technical
expertise, establishing a Web site may be difcult.
Research has indicated that rms may be less likely to
adopt an innovation or technology if it requires a high
level of new skills by members of the organization
[45,55]. Therefore,

341

Hypothesis 4. Earlier adopters perceive Web sites to

be less complex than later adopters.
3.5. Top management support
As in almost all innovative endeavors in the rm,
top management support is extremely important. This
is particularly so for electronic commerce technologies, because they transform existing organizational
procedures and impact relationships with trading partners (suppliers, wholesalers, transporters, manufacturers, and retailers) [58]. Top management support
includes a commitment to support the technology at all
levels of the organization. Research indicates that top
management support is a good predictor of success of
a new IT [20]. Although there is evidence that Web
adoption is often driven by a grass roots movement,
others argue that without top management, the innovation adoption process will stall.
Hypothesis 5. Earlier adopters have greater top management support for a Web site than do later adopters.
4. Methodology
The survey shown in Appendix A was used to
collect the data. The questions are derived from other
research that has examined the same constructs (refer
back to Table 1). Questions were modied to t the
Web context where appropriate. Measurement properties of all items, except for perceived benets, had
been shown to be reliable in the studies from which
they were adopted. Although the perceived benets
items had not been validated, they had been widely
used in electronic commerce studies. Two colleagues
who do electronic commerce research and ve top IS
executives reviewed a draft of the questionnaire for
clarity, content, and appropriateness of the questions.
Modications were made in accordance with their
suggestions. Therefore, we believe that the questionnaire has content validity.
The respondent to our study was the IS manager
directly responsible for managing the decision to
establish a corporate Web site. A survey was conducted in the summer of 1997 by sending it to a systematic random sample of 1500 individuals selected
from The Directory of Top Computer Executives. This

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

The second stage of this assessment compared

these demographic characteristics of respondents to
those of non-respondents. A random sample of twenty
subjects who did not return the research instrument
was contacted by telephone to obtain this information. Results of Chi-square tests again show there are
no signicant differences between respondents and
non-respondents at the a 0:05 signicance level for
any variable, except the respondents' level of experience with Web site technology (Table 2b). A larger
proportion of non-respondents than respondents had
little to no experience with Web site technology. This
is not surprising, because respondents who do not
have experience with Web site technology are probably less likely to participate in the study. They may
believe that they are not qualied to complete the
instrument, or they may have little interest in the
results of this research. However, because of the
consistency between the groups on other characteristics, the two comparisons lend support to the

directory contains a listing of 15,000 public and

private organizations operating within the United
States with an annual IS budget exceeding US$
250,000 and either a mainframe computer, or 150
personal computers within the rm.
In order to increase the response rate for this study, a
series of two mailings, separated by a 3-week-period,
were used. A total of 284 usable instruments were
received from both mailings for a total response rate of
18.9%. Because of the relatively low response rate, it
is possible that respondents differ from non-respondents. A two-stage approach was therefore used to
assess this possibility of non-response bias. First,
demographic characteristics of respondents from the
rst mailing were compared to those of respondents
from the second mailing using a Chi-square test. There
were no signicant differences between the respondents at a 0:05, indicating that respondents from
each of the mailings possessed roughly the same
characteristics (Table 2a).

Table 2
Assessment of non-response bias between the first and second mailings and between respondents and non-respondents
Variable

d.f.

w2 value

(a) First and second mailings

Job title
Total number of employees
Total number of I/S employees
Percent of firm's budget allocated to I/S
Industry in which the firm operates
Use of intranet technology by the firm
Use of EDI technology by the firm
Use of EFT technology by the firm
Use of FAX technology by the firm
Use of e-mail technology by the firm
Age of the organization
Respondent's experience level with Web technology

4
4
3
3
18
1
1
1
1
1
4
4

2.71
1.01
6.25
2.33
12.60
1.06
0.48
0.31
2.29
0.19
1.64
4.54

0.607
0.909
0.100
0.507
0.817
0.303
0.489
0.579
0.130
0.666
0.802
0.338

(b) Respondents and non-respondents

Job title
Total number of employees
Total number of I/S employees
Percent of firm's budget allocated to I/S
Industry in which the firm operates
Use of intranet technology by the firm
Use of EDI technology by the firm
Use of EFT technology by the firm
Use of FAX technology by the firm
Use of e-mail technology by the firm
Age of the organization
Respondent's level of experience with Web site technology

4
4
3
3
18
1
1
1
1
1
4
4

6.19
4.80
1.75
1.53
15.80
2.43
0.07
0.00
0.46
2.52
2.36
29.00

0.186
0.308
0.627
0.675
0.607
0.119
0.786
0.997
0.498
0.113
0.670
0.001

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

343

assumption that those who responded to the survey are

representative of the population.
5. Profile of respondents
Firms participating in the study represented a broad
spectrum of industry sectors. Firms were well-established medium to large organizations. Firms with less
than 1000 total employees made up 34% of the
respondents and rms with more than 1000 up to
5000 employees comprised 41% of all respondents.
These two categories represented the largest portion of
sample participants, while organizations that had more
than 50,000 total employees comprised 5% of the
respondents. A majority of the respondents (90%) work
for organizations that have been in operation for more
than 20 years. Firms that have been in operation for 10
years to <20 years comprise 8% of respondents, while
<10% have been in operation for <10 years.
Almost one-half of the respondents hold the position of director of IS within the rm. Almost 21% were
chief information ofcer (CIO), 11.5% were vice
presidents, and chief technology ofcers (CTO) represented <1%.
6. Identification of adopter categories
Respondents were classied into the ve categories
based on the number of months that their organization
had an operational Web site. Analysis of frequency of
responses for each month indicated there were natural
groupings over a 36-month-period (see Table 3).
Commercial Web use is estimated to have started
around 1993. Firms that had an established Web site
Table 3
Adopter categories
Category

Timeframe

Pioneers
Early adopters

3 years or greater
2 years up to less than
3 years
1 year up to less than
2 years
Less than 1 year
Currently developing site

Early majority
Late majority
Laggards
Total

Frequency %
24
68

8.4
23.8

95

33.2

44
55

15.4
19.2

286

100.0

Fig. 3. Comparison of rogers adopter curve with adopter curve

from this study. source: [46].

for three years or longer were placed in the pioneers

category. Based on the clustering of responses and the
position of natural breaks in the adoption time frame,
respondents were placed into the four remaining
adoption categories as shown in Table 3. Although
this classication scheme does not precisely mimic the
adoption percentages recommended in the diffusion of
innovations theory (Fig. 3), the use of months as the
basis to establish adoption categories provided a logical structure for this study.
Because an underlying assumption of our grouping
is that all these rms are part of the same social
system, irrespective of industry, it is important to
assess whether there are differences in adoption patterns among industries. Although there are not enough
respondents to statistically examine the distribution of
industry types across adopter categories, a descriptive
assessment reveals that there are no large differences
among the type of adopter within industries with the
exception of the government sector (Table 4). Over
one-half of the pioneers were government rms. This
is not surprising considering that the Web was initially
developed for academic and government use. However, the percentage of other industries in other categories appears to roughly match their distribution in
the sample as a whole. For example, insurance rms
make up a small portion in each category, and they
also comprise only 6.3% of the whole sample.
7. Data analysis
Although the sets of items used to measure each of
the constructs in this study are grounded in theory,

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

Table 4
Profile of adoption categories by industry
Industry
Manufacturing
Education
Government
Finance
Insurance
Wholesale
Healthcare
Retail
Service industries
Transportation
Other
Total (%)

Pioneer

Early adopter

Early majority

Late majority

Laggard

12
4
54
8
4
0
0
4
4
0
10

19
6
18
12
6
7
0
4
4
2
22

23
4
20
9
6
4
0
6
1
5
22

25
5
11
14
7
14
2
7
2
2
11

31
9
4
9
9
5
0
7
0
4
22

100

100

100

100

100

they are derived from a variety of sources and some

items are modied from their original scales to t the
Web adoption context. Thus, their individual measurement properties, such as dimensionality and internal
consistency, may have changed in our context. For
example, some items that measure one construct when
examined as a single set might measure an additional
construct when considered with a second set of items;
the measures may no longer be unidimensional.
Dimensionality and internal consistency are two major
aspects of construct validity [57]. Because it is related
to whether the constructs measure what the researcher
believes them to measure, it is critical to examine
properties of the measures prior to testing hypotheses
about the relationships between each construct and
type of adopter [7].
Assessing dimensionality involves examining the
intercorrelations among the measurement items.
Those that are highly correlated are believed to measure the same construct, and those that are not are
believed not to do so. A correlation matrix for the
items is shown in Table 5.
The correlations among the items thought to measure top management support (items 13) are strong,
yet the correlation among these items and two of the
items thought to measure organizational compatibility
(items 4 and 5) are also strong. The correlations of the
other items thought to measure organizational compatibility (items 68) with items 4 and 5 are weak.
Thus, it appears that items 4 and 5 may measure a
construct other than what they were originally proposed to measure.

The correlation matrix also indicates that among the

items thought to measure technical incompatibility
(items 912), the strongest correlations are between
items 11 and 9 and between items 11 and 12. The
others are somewhat weak, indicating that this construct may not be well measured by this set of four
items. Furthermore, the correlations among the items
thought to measure perceived benets (items 1522)
indicate that there may be a weak relationship among
several of these items. However, it is somewhat difcult to assess the dimensionality of these sets of
measures from observing only the correlation matrix.
In addition, because of the complexity and difculty of
measuring human perceptions of phenomenon of
interest, there may be relationships among measurement items that are not obvious from examination of a
correlation matrix alone [14].
One `powerful and indispensable method of construct validation' is factor analysis. Construct validity
is concerned with the common variance between
measures, and a primary `pre-occupation of factor
analysis is common-factor variance,' [28]. Although
``we get nothing more out of a factor analysis than we
put into it, . . . we do not know all we put into it,'' [28].
Factor analysis is a powerful tool that helps us better
assess the properties of sets of measures not only by
assessing the correlation among items, but by using
the correlation matrix to derive factor loadings that
represent the correlation between an item and the
construct, it is thought to measure. Although factor
analysis does not directly constitute a test of construct
validity, it does offer a way of constructing an

Table 5
Correlation matrix for the original 22 itemsa
Item

2
1.00
0.84
0.70
0.57
0.43
0.19
0.08
0.06
0.19
0.06
0.21
0.17
0.28
0.12
0.09
0.16
0.13
0.18
0.30
0.28
0.28
0.22
4.19
0.82

3
1.00
0.77
0.64
0.48
0.20
0.10
0.10
0.20
0.08
0.28
0.17
0.28
0.06
0.16
0.18
0.16
0.20
0.35
0.31
0.30
0.24
3.93
0.87

1.00
0.60
0.44
0.24
0.18
0.18
0.18
0.14
0.29
0.18
0.29
0.10
0.13
0.15
0.13
0.10
0.23
0.22
0.22
0.20
3.68
0.95

1.00
0.42
0.32
0.29
0.32
0.17
0.10
0.35
0.18
0.28
0.07
0.20
0.16
0.24
0.26
0.28
0.22
0.26
0.29
4.00
0.81

1.00
0.22
0.16
0.19
0.12
0.02
0.22
0.06
0.25
0.14
0.11
0.11
0.14
0.17
0.27
0.15
0.26
0.21
3.42
1.00

1.00
0.67
0.44
0.20
0.01
0.24
0.10
0.21
0.19
0.10
0.08
0.17
0.15
0.13
0.06
0.13
0.24
3.89
0.93

1.00
0.58
0.12
0.00
0.20
0.06
0.13
0.16
0.19
0.07
0.16
0.18
0.11
0.02
0.09
0.30
3.76
0.99

1.00
0.19
0.10
0.18
0.16
0.19
0.10
0.13
0.12
0.14
0.12
0.15
0.03
0.13
0.20
3.34
0.99

10

1.00
0.24
0.50
0.21
0.27
0.14
0.04
0.00
0.02
0.05
0.03
0.09
0.07
0.06
2.06
0.87

1.00
0.26
0.34
0.19
0.18
0.16
0.09
0.24
0.23
0.00
0.00
0.14
0.22
3.49
1.00

11

1.00
0.40
0.31
0.21
0.19
0.16
0.19
0.13
0.18
0.14
0.15
0.20
2.22
0.91

12

1.00
0.50
0.33
0.05
0.11
0.10
0.00
0.15
0.17
0.07
0.03
2.66
0.98

13

1.00
0.52
0.09
0.08
0.06
0.03
0.17
0.08
0.15
0.08
2.37
0.81

14

1.00
0.08
0.03
0.08
0.01
0.09
0.02
0.05
0.07
2.95
0.92

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

1.00
0.61
0.65
0.42
0.34
0.17
0.41
0.61
3.05
0.99

1.00
0.58
0.35
0.35
0.19
0.34
0.49
2.75
0.84

1.00
0.48
0.29
0.12
0.34
0.72
3.31
0.94

1.00
0.39
0.36
0.49
0.53
3.98
0.72

1.00
0.48
0.47
0.41
3.80
0.78

1.00
0.50
0.21
3.95
0.84

1.00
0.55
3.89
0.69

1.00
3.47
0.91

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
mb
s

a
Items 13 are TM1TM3 meant to measure top management support; items 48 are COMOP1COMOP5 meant to measure organizational compatibility; items 912 are
COMTE1COMTE4 meant to measure technical incompatibility; items 1314 are COMP1COMP2 meant to measure perceived complexity of the technology; items 1522 are
PB1PB8 meant to measure perceived benefits.
b
All items measured on a five-point scale where 1: strongly agree and 5: strongly disagree.

345

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

interrelated set of indicators meeting one of the conditions for construct validity: dimensionality. If one or
more indicators measure more than one construct (i.e.
the measure is multidimensional), then it is difcult to
establish reliability, which is also a necessary component of construct validity. Many IS researchers use
exploratory factor analysis to assess dimensionality
[62].
Therefore, a series of principal components factor
analyses using a VARIMAX rotation were used to
assess unidimensionality in this study. Eigenvalues of
at least one and a scree plot were used to assess the
number of factors to extract. Dimensionality of each of
the factors was assessed by examining factor loadings.
Items with factor loadings >0.50 on factors with which
they were hypothesized to load were considered adequate indicators of that factor. Items with factors of at
least 0.30 on other factors were examined to see if they
conceptually measured another factor and were also
then considered for elimination from the model.
Twenty-two items were hypothesized to measure
ve constructs as shown in Table 6.

In the rst factor analysis, the items hypothesized a

priori to measure competitive environment and complexity loaded as predicted. The three items used to
measure top management support also loaded on a
single factor as predicted. However, two of the items
predicted to measure organizational compatibility
COMOP1 (organizations values and beliefs) and
COMOP2 (organizational attitude) also loaded
on that factor. The items measure the extent to which
Web technology ts with organizational values and
organizational attitude about having a Web site.
Because values and attitudes are part of an organization's culture, and because top management can signicantly inuence that culture, it is reasonable that
these items measure the same factor as those designed
to measure top management support. This is consistent
with our observations of the correlation matrix. Rather
than top management support, however, it seems a
better name for the factor now is organizational
support. This reects a broader scope of support for
adopting the technology, and is consistent with prior
ndings that Web site adoption is often driven by

Table 6
Adoption constructs and items
Construct

Item

Label

Perceived benefits

Reduce transaction costs

Improve cash flow
Improve overall productivity
Enhance customer service
Increase ability to compete
Reach new customers
Improve existing customer relations
Improve operational efficiency

PB1
PB2
PB3
PB4
PB5
PB6
PB7
PB8

Organizational compatibility

Organizations values and beliefs

Organizational attitude
Communications infrastructure
Computerized data resources
Organizational experience

COMOP1
COMOP2
COMOP3
COMOP4
COMOP5

Technical incompatibility

Disrupt work environment

Operating environment changes
Decrease productivity learning time
Substantial time to learn technology

COMTE1
COMTE2
COMTE3
COMTE4

Complexity

Complex to develop
Complex to use

COMP1
COMP2

Top management support

Top management interest

Top management importance
Top management communicates

TM1
TM2
TM3

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

members of the organization rather than just top

managers. The other three items predicted to measure
organizational compatibility loaded on a single factor,
alone. These items address organizational resources
need for the Web rather than attitudes or values. Thus,
it is reasonable that they loaded together.
Three of the four items to measure technical incompatibility loaded together, but one item COMTE4
(substantial time to learn technology) also loaded with
items to measure complexity. The more complex a
technology, the longer it takes to learn, thus, it is
reasonable that this item cross-loaded. Because of this,
the item was dropped from subsequent analyses.
Finally items predicted to measure perceived benets loaded on two separate factors. One set of items
PB2 (improve cash ow), PB3 (improve productivity),
PB8 (improved operational efciency), and PB1
(reduced transaction cost) seem to measure direct
benets. The other set seems to measure indirect
benets PB4 (enhance customer service), PB5
(increase ability to compete), PB6 (reach new customers), and PB7 (improved customer relations). One
item PB4 (enhance customer service) cross-loaded on
both factors (loadings of 0.50 and 0.52, respectively).
Another perceived benet PB7 (improve relationships
with existing customers) also cross-loaded with both
sets of items (0.69 and 0.37). Therefore, both were
dropped from subsequent analyses.
In a second factor analysis, performed without the
items that were eliminated, factor patterns remained
the same as in the rst except for the indirect perceived
benet items and one of the technical incompatibility
items. Again, one of the perceived indirect benet
items PB5 (increase ability to compete) crossloaded with direct benets (0.75 and 0.35). Thus, this
item was eliminated, leaving only one item to measure
indirect benets PB6 (allow my company to reach
new customers). The technical incompatibility item
COMTE2 (operating environment changes) cross
loaded with both the other technical incompatibility
items and with perceived direct benets (0.61 and
0.31). It is conceivable that although changes to the
operating environment may be viewed as evidence of
incompatibility, it could also be viewed as a benet if
the changes brought about by having a Web site were
benecial to the rm. Therefore, because the item
cross-loaded, it was dropped from subsequent analyses.

347

In a third run, factor patterns remained constant,

with the remaining indirect benet PB6 (reach new
customers) not signicantly loading on direct
benets or any other factor. Thus, it was dropped.
A fourth and nal factor analysis was performed
without that item. The resulting factor structure consisted of 16 items measuring ve distinct factors and
explained 73% of the variance (Table 7).
Cronbach's coefcient a was calculated for each of
the ve factors to assess the internal consistency of the
model constructs. Organizational support (a 0:88),
organizational compatibility (a 0:80), and perceived direct benets (a 0:86) had coefcient a
values exceeding 0.70. Factors with a set of items
with a coefcient a > 0:70 are considered internally
consistent [38].
Two of the constructs in the model technical
incompatibility and complexity were comprised of
two items each. Because Cronbach's coefcient a is
not an appropriate measure to assess two item constructs, correlations between the two items for each
construct was examined to determine whether to
include these factors in subsequent analysis. The
two items comprising technical incompatibility had
a correlation of 0.48 (p 0:0001) and the two items
comprising complexity had a correlation of 0.51
(p 0:0001). Because these results indicate moderately strong correlations between items comprising
both constructs and each correlation was statistically
signicant, these factors were included in the nal
model
8. Results of hypotheses tests
MANOVA was used to test the research hypotheses.
The Wilks' Criterion for the test of overall statistical
effect had an F-value 4:35 p 0:0001, indicating
the means for the adopter categories contain signicant differences at a 0:05 (Table 8).
The results provide support for hypotheses relating
to perceived benets (Hypothesis 1), organizational
compatibility (Hypothesis 2), technical incompatibility (Hypothesis 3), and organizational support
(Hypothesis 5); but not for complexity (Hypothesis
4). There were no signicant differences among rms'
perceptions of complexity of Web technology.
Although the Web was a new technology at the time

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

Table 7
Operationalization of research variablesa
Label

Item

Organizational
support 4.79
(30%)

TMS2
TMS1
TMS3
COMOP1
COMOP2
PB3
PB1
PB8
PB2
COMOP4
COMOP3
COMOP5
COMTE1
COMTE3
COMP2
COMP1

Top management importance

Top management interest
Top management communicate
Organization values and beliefs
Organization favorable attitude
Improve overall productivity
Reduce transaction costs
Improve operational efficiency
Improve cash flow
Computerized data resources
Communications infrastructure
Organizational experience
Disrupt work environment
Decrease productivity learning
Complex to develop
Complex to use

0.92
0.89
0.85
0.72
0.61

Perceived direct
benefits 24.1
(15%)

0.87
0.85
0.80
0.79

Organizationl
compatibility

0.89
0.79
0.77

Technical
incompatibility
1.41 (9%)

0.90
0.78

Complexity
1.06 (7%)

0.87
0.79

Values below each factor indicate the eigenvalues and percent of variance explained.

many of these respondents adopted, it appears that it

was not perceived as highly complex by any of them,
regardless of when they adopted. Of the ve constructs, complexity has the lowest mean for each
category of adopter (Table 9). This nding is consistent with evidence in other studies that indicates the
establishment of organizational web sites has largely
been a `bottom-up' movement led by non-technical
users. One of the reasons underlying the rapid and
widespread popularity of web sites is the relative
simplicity of the underlying technology. Because
Table 8
MANOVA statistic results

Statistic
Wilks' lambda
Pillai's trace
HotellingLawley trace
Roy's greatest root

Pr > F

4.3492
4.0083
4.6627
16.9462

0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001

Construct
Perceived direct benefits (Hypothesis 1)
3.34
Organizational compatibility (Hypothesis 2) 2.80
Technical incompatibility (Hypothesis 3)
7.55
Complexity (Hypothesis 4)
1.38
Organizational support (Hypothesis 5)
16.40

0.0107
0.0265
0.0001
0.2403
0.0001

the technology is highly accessible and understandable, it is not perceived as highly complex.
For those variables found to be signicant, Tukey's
Honestly Signicant Difference Test was used to
further assess exactly where the differences lie
(Table 9).
Perceived direct benets of a Web site are more
important to pioneers (mean 3:50) than for laggards
(mean 2:90). Organizations that were the rst to
adopt a Web site perceived that this technology would
signicantly benet existing and potential business
information sharing requirements within the organization. Organizations that were later adopters of a Web
site perceived fewer immediate business benets.
These organizations may have eventually decided to
adopt this technology based on widespread acceptance
of Web sites by organizations in all industry classications, or the need to maintain technological parity
with other organizations in their industry.
Organizational compatibility was greater for pioneers (4.15) than for laggards (3.56) and late majority
(3.53). This nding supports the notion that organizations that perceive a Web site as a technical innovation
that readily aligns with their existing culture and
internal business environment will quickly move to
adopt the innovation. A possible explanation is that the

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

Table 9
Mean values for the adoption variables by adopter category
Meana
Organizational support
Pioneers
Early adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Laggards

4.28
4.02
4.02
3.73
3.27

Perceived direct benefits

Pioneers
Early adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Laggards

3.50
3.26
3.15
3.02
2.90

Organizational compatibility
Pioneers
Early adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Laggards

4.15
3.70
3.68
3.53
3.56

Technical incompatibility
Pioneers
Early adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Laggards

2.52
2.60
2.61
2.80
2.82

Complexity
Pioneers
Early adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Laggards

1.90
1.99
2.02
2.24
2.60

Means are calculated from responses on a five-point scale,

where 1: strongly disagree and 5: strongly agree.

rms that adopted early were already engaged in

electronic commerce activities, and having a Web site
t with what they were already doing. Organizations
that perceive that a Web site is inconsistent with their
established value system and formalized business
experiences will tend to delay their adoption.
Technical incompatibility was signicantly greater
for laggards (2.82) than for early majority (2.61), early
adopters (2.60), and pioneers (2.52). The items used to
assess technical incompatibility measured the possible
negative perceived impacts that the adoption of a Web
site would have on the organization. These results are
consistent with the previous research. Organizations
that are the rst to adopt a Web site may perceive that

349

the development and implementation of a Web site is

in line with their existing IS architecture.
Organizational support is signicantly greater for
pioneers (4.28) than for late majority (3.73) and
laggards (3.27). The results also indicate that this
attribute was signicantly greater for early adopters
(4.02), early majority (4.02), and late majority (3.73)
than for laggards (3.27). May be organizations that
that were quick to adopt may have already possessed
strong organizational support for the adoption of the
technology. Unlike other e-commerce technologies
that required top management support to ensure the
successful adoption of a new technology, support for
the adoption of Web site technology is often a bottom
up or grass roots process within the organization.
Individuals within the organization who have received
benets from using Web sites to meet their personal
information needs at home may try to inuence the
organization to develop a Web site to meet their
business information needs.
9. Ex post facto assessment
9.1. Exploratory assessment of adopter categories
Although the ndings indicate that there are statistically signicant differences among adopters with
regard to the constructs of interest, there are not as
many differences among categories as expected. For
example, perceived benets for pioneers differ only
from those for laggards (not for others). Furthermore,
the differences for each of the other signicant constructs seem to be between the extremes of the categories, and they are quite limited among the other
categories. May be the categories do not adequately
reect the underlying temporal inuences on adoption. Thus, in a purely exploratory, ex post facto mode,
we examine whether a different grouping might provide a clearer picture of the differences in adopters
based on time of adoption. Because the Web is relatively new, there may be fewer than ve distinct categories. The population may actually be best divided into
those that adopted rst, those that adopted last, and
those in the middle. In order to achieve this grouping,
and to ensure a relatively equal distribution of respondents across groups, we combined the pioneers and
early adopters into rst adopters; the late majority and

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

laggards into late adopters; and left the early majority

as a single group called middle adopters.
MANOVA was used to test the original research
hypotheses using these three categories. However, the
Wilks' Criterion for the test of overall statistical effect
had an F-value 1:52 p 0:1277, indicating the
means for the adopter categories do not contain signicant differences at the a 0:05. This regrouping
does not provide a clearer picture, thereby lending
support for using the original ve categories, and the
original ndings.
However, to further explore our somewhat subjective original groupings, we examined one additional
grouping. Many of the differences found in the original model are between pioneers and the late adopters
and laggards, with few differences among other categories. The pioneers in this study were the original
adopters of this technology. They did not have the
benet of seeing what other rms had done, or of
knowing how popular the Web would become. Therefore, it is possible that they were inuenced differently
from others, even those who adopted only a few
months later. We left pioneers as a single category,
grouped early adopters and early majority into the
middle adopter category, and grouped late majority
and laggards into the latest adopter category.
Using MANOVA to test the original research
hypotheses using these three categories, the Wilks'
Criterion for the test of overall statistical effect had a
F-value 2:16 p 0:0190, indicating the means
for these categories do contain signicant differences
at the a 0:05. Results are, however, consistent with
the ndings in the original model. There are signicant differences among categories for perceived benets F 3:04; p 0:0500, organizational compatibility F 4:65; p 0:0105, and organizational
support F 6:24; p 0:0023, again lending support for Hypotheses 1, 2 and 5. The only hypothesis
not supported in this assessment that was supported by
the original model is Hypothesis 4, which addresses
technical incompatibility F 1:72; p 0:1810.
Hypothesis 3 that addresses complexity, is not
supported in the original model or this one
F 2:28; p 0:1043.
Tukey's Honestly Signicant Difference Test indicates that the differences among these three categories
are consistent with those among the original ve
categories. Pioneers perceived signicantly greater

benets than the third category late majority and

laggards. There were no other signicant differences
among categories for perceived benets. This is
wholly consistent with the ndings of the original
model. This is also consistent with the original model.
One difference is that, in addition, pioneers perceived
signicantly greater organizational compatibility than
the middle category that consists of early adopters and
early majority. In the original model, where early
adopters and early majority were separate, there were
no differences between pioneers and either of these.
Finally, both pioneers and the middle category indicated signicantly greater organizational support than
the late majority and laggards. This is also wholly
consistent with the ndings of the original model.
This model of three categories provides a picture of
adoption that is consistent with that of the original
model, thereby lending even further support to it.
These ndings also indicate that Web adoption
appears to follow a pattern that is consistent with
other types of IT adoption.
9.2. Exploratory assessment of importance of
constructs within adopter categories
Although there are signicant differences between
the original ve categories on all but one of the
constructs, the means of the constructs (Table 9)
suggest that some may be more important than others
within adopter categories. Thus, in purely exploratory,
ex post facto mode, we examine the relative means of
the ve constructs within each of the original ve
adopter categories (Table 10).
In each category, except laggards, the mean for
organizational support was the largest, followed by
organizational compatibility, and perceived benets.
The means for technical incompatibility and complexity were lowest. For laggards, the only difference in
order was that the mean for organizational compatibility was greatest, followed by organizational support. Thus, in each category, respondents most
strongly agreed that their sites had organizational
support, were organizationally compatible, and that
having a Web site offered potential benets, even
though the categories differed in the strength of their
responses on each. This is consistent with the diffusion
of innovations theory and with other technology adoption research ndings.

R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

351

Table 10
Importance of constructs within adopter categories
Construct

Pioneersa

Early adopters

Early majority

Late majority

Laggards

Organizational support
Organizational compatibility
Perceived benefits
Technical incompatibility
Complexity of the technology

4.28
4.15
3.50
2.52
1.90

4.02
3.70
3.26
2.60
1.99

4.02
3.69
3.15
2.62
2.00

3.73
3.52
3.02
2.82
2.24

3.27
3.56
2.90
2.80
2.60

(0.48)
(0.65)
(0.64)
(0.80)
(0.77)

(0.67)
(0.88)
(0.76)
(0.71)
(0.71)

(0.65)
(0.81)
(0.80)
(0.77)
(0.76)

(0.65)
(0.85)
(0.77)
(0.72)
(0.71)

(0.70)
(0.73)
(0.72)
(0.77)
(0.76)

Mean (S.D.).

Top management in these adopting rms is perceived to believe that having a Web site is important,
that the organization as a whole favorably views
having a Web site, and that having Web site is perceived to be compatible with how the organization
currently manages its information and data resources.
This portrays a somewhat different picture than early
Web related research that suggests that corporate Web
sites are driven by bottom-up, grassroots movements
with little inuence from the top. Support and compatibility may be more important in Web adoption
than perceived benets; this is also different from
other technology adoption research ndings. Because
this data was not collected with this exploratory
assessment in mind, these ndings may not be valid
or reliable. However, they do suggest that our view of
technology adoption may not adequately explain Web
adoption, and that our understanding may be enhanced
by a closer examination of these inuencing factors.
10. Summary and discussion
By examining when they adopted, a picture of
differences in the rationale for producing a Web site
begins to emerge. Findings from our work indicate
that the earliest adopters placed signicantly more
emphasis on perceived benets for having a Web site
than the latest. Earliest adopters also viewed using the
Web as being more compatible with their current
organizational processes and systems; and viewed it
as being more compatible with their existing technological infrastructure. They also garnered signicantly
greater organizational support for a Web site than their
later counterparts. Consistent with the diffusion of
innovations theory, the early reasons for adoption were
based on benets, compatibility of the technology, and

organizational support. Firms that adopted much later

in the adoption cycle appear to have not placed as
much emphasis on benets, and adopted in spite of the
seeming lack of compatibility between the Web and
their existing technology and organizational norms.
They also had less organizational support for a Web
site. Thus, it seems that there were other reasons for
adopting. Because so many companies had established
Web sites, many of the uncertainties the earlier adopters faced were not as prevalent for later groups.
Finally, rms may believe that having it is a strategic
necessity, and rather than looking to gain competitive
advantage, they adopt to maintain their current
position.
However, usefulness (benets) and compatibility
have been shown to affect both initial adoption and
subsequent use of a technology. Furthermore, until
rms grasp what they can use the Web to do for them,
attainment of benets may be limited.
For further reading see [1,4,5,8,26,29,32,36,56,61].
Appendix A. Survey questions
1. Top management is interested in the implementation of a Web site.
2. Top management considers a Web site important to
the organization.
3. Top management has effectively communicated its
support for a Web site.
4. A Web site is consistent with our organization's
values and beliefs.
5. Attitudes toward a Web site have in our organization always been favorable.
6. A Web site is compatible with our telecommunications infrastructure.

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R.C. Beatty et al. / Information & Management 38 (2001) 337354

7. A Web site is compatible with our computerized

data resources.
8. A Web site is compatible with our experience with
similar systems.
9. Adoption of a Web site will be disruptive to our
work environment.
10. Adoption of a Web site will require changes in our
operating procedures.
11. Adoption of a Web site will decrease productivity
because of the time required to learn the technology.
12. Adoption of Web site technology will require a
substantial amount of time to learn to use.
13. My organization believes a Web site is complex to
use.
14. My organization believes that Web site development is a complex process.
Adoption of web site technology will
 reduce my company's cost of performing business
transactions;
 improve my company's cash flow;
 improve my company's level of overall productivity;
 enable my company to provide better customer
service;
 increase my company's ability to compete;
 allow my company to reach new customers;
 improve our relationship with our existing customers;
 improve my company's level of operational efficiency.
Response choices for all questions were 1: strongly
disagree; 2: disagree; 3: neutral; 4: agree and 5:
strongly agree.
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years of professional experience as a project manager in the areas

of applications systems development and electronic business
strategy development. His articles have appeared in Information
and Management, European Journal of Information Systems, and
the Journal of Computer Information Systems. His major research
areas are technology assessment and adoption, strategic information systems, and international information systems.

Robert C. Beatty is an assistant professor of Electronic Business

in the M.J. Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian
University. He holds a DBA from Mississippi State University in
Management Information Systems, a MBA from Mississippi State
University, a MCSM from Creighton University, and a BA in
computer science from Texas Christian University. He also has 9

Mary C. Jones is an associate professor of information systems at

the University of North Texas where she teaches systems analysis
and design. She received her doctorate from the University of
Oklahoma. Her research interests are in the management and
integration of electronic commerce technologies and in organizational factors associated with ERP systems.

J.P. Shim is a professor of information systems at MSU and

visiting scholar at Chinese University of Hong Kong for 20002001.
He received his PhD from University of Nebraska and completed
Harvard Business School's Executive Education. He has published
over 40 journal articles. His research interests are streaming
technology in e-commerce. He has received numerous grants and is
seven-time recipient of outstanding faculty award at MSU.