An empirical investigation of the Miles and Snow typology for small online businesses

ISSN： 1476-1300

Source： International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management, Vol.1, Iss.3, 2004-05, pp. : 245-264

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Abstract

The World Wide Web is becoming an increasingly important strategic tool for businesses around the world. The web offers businesses the ability to promote their products, conduct market research, deliver customer services, and sell their products directly to an ever-growing number of internet users worldwide. However, very little is known about how businesses should strategically leverage the capabilities of this new medium. This article presents the results of an empirical study of the Miles and Snow typology to describe the strategies of small businesses involved in web-based electronic commerce. The results demonstrate that the Miles and Snow typology can be extended to the realm of electronic commerce and that the strategies followed by online businesses are consistent with previous empirical findings. Furthermore, the results lend further support to the validity and usefulness of the typology and to the concept of co-alignment.