ELECTRONIC BUSINESS: IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFECTS Odd Fredriksson E-Business, also called digital business, has an increasingly recurring role in daily transaction facilitation in marketing channels and dyadic trading rela- tionships. These developments imply that the findings of this thesis are more relevant than ever. Managers in various positions need to deeply understand ELECTRONIC BUSINESS the mutual interrelations between marketing and IT use conditions. IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFECTS The thesis aims at answering two research questions: RQ 1: What are the conditions influencing e-Business system implementation processes? RQ 2: What e-Business-enabled performance effects result from e-Business system use, and how does the use of e-Business systems affect dyadic per- formance? The thesis comprises five case studies focusing on different e-Business forms in four Swedish marketing channel contexts. The five empirical studies were conducted in different contexts (B2B, B2G and B2C), exploring different lev- els of analysis, and span across a 20-year period, from 1988 to 2008. A literature review was conducted after the five case studies were published. Knowledge and findings identified from mainly the relationship view and information systems literature were synthesised and applied to the five publi- Fredriksson Odd cations in retrospective. The overall conclusion drawn from this thesis is the crucial importance of hu- man success conditions. The degree of commitment and pro-active actions of human beings – individually and collectively among all stakeholders involved – and their competencies decisively influence the degree to which the e- Business implementation and diffusion process will be successful, and in turn the business value outcomes that can be attained. ELECTRONIC BUSINESS BUSINESS ELECTRONIC ODD FREDRIKSSON is a teacher at Karlstad Business School. Odd Fredriksson’s main research interests are in the intersection area of primarily marketing and IS perspectives on implementation, diffusion and impacts of digital innovations. ISBN 978-91-7731-206-2 DOCTORAL DISSERTATION IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, SWEDEN 2021 ELECTRONIC BUSINESS: IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFECTS Odd Fredriksson E-Business, also called digital business, has an increasingly recurring role in daily transaction facilitation in marketing channels and dyadic trading rela- tionships. These developments imply that the findings of this thesis are more relevant than ever. Managers in various positions need to deeply understand ELECTRONIC BUSINESS the mutual interrelations between marketing and IT use conditions. IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFECTS The thesis aims at answering two research questions: RQ 1: What are the conditions influencing e-Business system implementation processes? RQ 2: What e-Business-enabled performance effects result from e-Business system use, and how does the use of e-Business systems affect dyadic per- formance? The thesis comprises five case studies focusing on different e-Business forms in four Swedish marketing channel contexts. The five empirical studies were conducted in different contexts (B2B, B2G and B2C), exploring different lev- els of analysis, and span across a 20-year period, from 1988 to 2008. A literature review was conducted after the five case studies were published. Knowledge and findings identified from mainly the relationship view and information systems literature were synthesised and applied to the five publi- Fredriksson Odd cations in retrospective. The overall conclusion drawn from this thesis is the crucial importance of hu- man success conditions. The degree of commitment and pro-active actions of human beings – individually and collectively among all stakeholders involved – and their competencies decisively influence the degree to which the e- Business implementation and diffusion process will be successful, and in turn the business value outcomes that can be attained. ELECTRONIC BUSINESS BUSINESS ELECTRONIC ODD FREDRIKSSON is a teacher at Karlstad Business School. Odd Fredriksson’s main research interests are in the intersection area of primarily marketing and IS perspectives on implementation, diffusion and impacts of digital innovations. ISBN 978-91-7731-206-2 DOCTORAL DISSERTATION IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, SWEDEN 2021 Electronic Business Implementation and Effects Odd Fredriksson Akademisk avhandling som för avläggande av ekonomie doktorsexamen vid Handelshögskolan i Stockholm framläggs för offentlig granskning onsdagen den 9 juni 2021, kl 10.15, sal Ragnar, Handelshögskolan, Bertil Ohlins gata 5, Stockholm Electronic Business Implementation and Effects Electronic Business Implementation and Effects Odd Fredriksson ii Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D., in Business Administration Stockholm School of Economics, 2021 Electronic Business: Implementation and Effects © SSE and the author, 2021 ISBN 978-91-7731-206-2 (printed) ISBN 978-91-7731-207-9 (pdf) Front cover illustration: © Minerva Studio/Shutterstock.com Back cover photo: Linn Malmén, 2014 Printed by: BrandFactory, Gothenburg, 2021 Keywords: Electronic business, marketing channel, buyer-supplier relationship, rela- tional view, diffusion of innovations, interactive innovation, implementa- tion process, diffusion process, critical success conditions, human-centred management, effects, business value, interactive innovation, critical mass, enterprise system, digitalisation To Hanna, Cajsa and Magnus Foreword This volume is the result of a research project carried out at the Department of Marketing and Strategy at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). The volume is submitted as a doctoral thesis at SSE. In keeping with the policies of SSE, the author has been entirely free to conduct and present his research in the manner of his choosing as an expression of his own ideas. SSE is grateful for the financial support provided by The Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen), Vinnova, Torsten och Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse, and Föreningen för MA-forskning, which has made it possible to carry out the project. Göran Lindqvist Hans Kjellberg Director of Research Professor and Head of the Stockholm School of Economics Department of Marketing and Strategy Acknowledgements This research has been financially supported by The Foundation for Distri- bution Research (currently Center for Consumer Marketing) at the Stock- holm School of Economics, Torsten och Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse, Föreningen för MA-forskning, Vinnova and The Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen). I am most grateful to all these organisations for providing financial support of my research. First of all I want to express that I am eternally grateful to my main su- pervisor throughout my whole Ph.D. journey, Claes-Robert (Case) Julander, who genuinely practices humanistic leadership. There is no one more suitable to handle “the odd case” than Case. Case, you have enthusiastically sup- ported, pushed forward, and believed in me throughout my whole process. What a remarkably odd performance by you Case! I am also immensely grateful for the very inspiring support and forward- looking actionable guidance by supervisor Micael Dahlen, my former corri- dor mate. You were highly instrumental in setting up the third supervisor dream team. Additionally, you also warmly and intelligently pushed me to sharpen and deepen my thinking and writing of this thesis overview and syn- thesis text (Part I) in your role as the mock seminar opponent. I am also very grateful to supervisor Magnus Söderlund. You are the most solid counsellor rock that you can ever imagine when making all the thesis overview and consistency decisions. Without the joint pushing for- ward, encouragement and coaching from you in the wonderful CMM super- visor team the present thesis would not have been possible to present. Of significant importance was also the valuable feedback that I received from all participants during the mock seminar: Thank you! Besides Case, my first supervisor team until my licentiate degree in busi- ness administration, consisted of Karl-Erik Wärneryd, who established the viii economic psychology field in Sweden, and my former corridor mate, P-G Holmlöv, a master in the art of writing. It was tremendously inspiring to have dialogues with the two of you on almost a daily basis, during some years. Besides Case, my second supervisor team consisted of Lars-Gunnar Mattsson and Lars-Erik Gadde. I learned tremendously much from the two of you! To all seven supervisors I very gratefully say: I could not have had better growth mindset supervisors than you! Since writing is learning you learn particularly much from co-writing. Particularly, I want to express how rewarding and enjoyable it was to co-write with Mats Vilgon (publication 2) and Lennart Ljung (publication 5). Moreover, I want to gratefully thank the co-authors of the other co-authored publications throughout the time span of this journey of learning: Lars Albert, P-G, Case, Michael Kaplan, Peter Docherty, Ragnvald Sannes, Gösta Steneskog, Catharina Lindblad, Bo Enquist, Ulrika Mollstedt, Linda Bergkvist, Marko Arola, Shumei Liao, Shenghua Xu, and Tord Larsson-Steen. Föreningen för MA-forskning, partly financing Study 1, appointed a ref- erence group with the following members: Leif Andersson, Ingvar Axelsson, Kennert Johansson, John Landborn, Thomas Persson and Hans Sarv. Thank you all for the insightful comments that you all provided during the reference group meetings. Handelsbanken’s head office