Creating e-business value through retail channel integration: A resource-based perspective of hybrid commerce

Abstract

The study of synergies arising from integrating physical and virtual retail channels is an area of increasing interest. Despite the much touted advantages of an integrated retail channel, there are very few successful hybrid commerce firms till date. This research attempts to understand how hybrid commerce e-business value can be measured, and how channel integration creates this value through three dimensions of information richness, spatial reach and offerings range. A structural model is formulated to empirically test the hypotheses using survey data collected from hybrid commerce firms. Results provide insights into the creation and measurement of hybrid commerce firm value.