A Study of Canadian Winery Websites: Identification of a Market Integration Stage Ying Zhu Master in Computer Science Central University for Nationalities Beijing, China, 2000 A Research Project Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of The University of Lethbridge in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MANAGEMENT Faculty of Management The University of Lethbridge Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada © Ying Zhu 2005 Abstract While website features of many kinds have been examined in numerous studies, few of these studies look at the use of websites by combining information technology and marketing perspectives. Also, no industry-specific website stage model has ever been proposed for Canadian wineries in particular. This research attempts to fill this gap by developing such a model. For this purpose, a census of 206 Canadian winery websites was conducted, and content analysis was used on the results. It was hypothesized that a technology-driven model introduced by Rao, Metts and Monge (2003) could be expanded by adding Market Integration as a new stage. Supporting the proposed hypotheses, 93.7% of Canadian wineries were reported to have market integration features on their websites, and the proportion of winery websites possessing such features proved to be greater in each subsequent stage in Rao’s model. iii 献给我的爱人和家人! To Those I Loved & Those Who Loved Me! Thank You! Thank you so much for being there. Thank you so much for standing up for me. Thank you so much for loving me everyday. Thank you so much for making me dinner everyday. Thank you so much for never scolding me for being myself. Thank you so much for being with me through the good and the bad. Thank you so much for never being angry with me…for long. Thank you so much for taking me on your trips. Thank you so much for never giving up on me. Thank you so much for trusting me. Thank you so much for all your kindness. Thank you so much for laughing at my jokes. Thank you so much for always telling me the truth. Thank you so much for always letting me tell you the truth. Thank you so much for teaching me how to do right (most of the time). Thank you so much for understanding my mind even when I don't. Thank you so much for teaching me how to be strong again. Thank you so much for letting me do what I want to do. Thank you so much for being my best friend. And thank you so much for being my husband! My parents and my sisters receive my deepest gratitude and love for their dedication and the many years of support. I thank them for their understanding and love. Their support and encouragement enabled me to complete this work. iv Acknowledgement This thesis is a significant scientific accomplishment in my life and it would have been impossible without the many people who supported me and believed in me, providing helpful comments along the way. First of all, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr. Debra Basil, for her inspiration and guidance. She is a sympathetic and principled person who provided invaluable comments during the process of researching and writing. Her overt enthusiasm, integrity and her mission to facilitate 'only high-quality work and nothing less', has made a deep impression on me. Her trust and scientific excitement also inspired me in the most important moments of decision-making. I also give special thanks to my co-supervisor, Dr. Gordon Hunter, who provided me with the strength and courage I needed to get through some hard times. His stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all the time devoted to research for this thesis. His humor, his kindness, his support, and his positive attitude influence everyone around him. Drs. Basil and Hunter were always there to meet and talk about my ideas and the problems and roadblocks that unavoidably appear in the course of performing research. Their constructive and practical advice was essential to the completion of this thesis. They have taught me innumerable lessons and provided insights on the workings of academic research in general. They are not only visionary researchers but also, and most importantly, kind, mostly helpful and trusting professors. v I am very grateful to my external reader, Dr. Carmine Sellitto, who introduced me to the wine industry as a research area, and provided constructive suggestions for this project. His professional input and tips helped me to get the study off on the right track. Thanks also to all my colleagues in the Master of Science Program. Their friendship, kindness and support throughout the whole year made me feel very much at home while conducting my studies. I am also very grateful to everyone that supports my research, provides valuable comments, and offers help. vi Table of Contents ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................. V TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... VII LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. X LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... XIII 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION .......................................................................... 5 2.1. INTERNET ADOPTION IN CANADIAN BUSINESS ....................................................... 5 2.2. INTERNET ADOPTION IN CANADIAN WINERIES ...................................................... 8 3. RESEARCH MODEL DEVELOPMENT .............................................................. 10 3.1. REFERENCE MODEL ............................................................................................. 10 3.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................................... 15 4. DEVELOPMENT OF HYPOTHESES ................................................................... 21 5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 25 5.1. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP ONE: CREATING WINERY LIST ................................... 29 5.2. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP TWO: CONTENT ANALYSIS .......................................... 31 5.2.1. Creating and Defining Categories .................................................................. 31 5.2.1.1. Functional Features Classification ......................................................... 32 5.2.1.2. Content Features Classification ............................................................. 44 5.2.2. Operationalization .......................................................................................... 47 vii 5.2.3. Coding Schemes .............................................................................................. 52 5.2.4. Selecting the Unit of Analysis ......................................................................... 52 5.3. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP THREE: PRE-TESTING THE CATEGORIES AND RULES OF OPERATIONALIZATION ...................................................................................................... 53 5.3.1. Revising Categories and Rules of Operationalization .................................... 54 5.3.1.1. Revised Functional Features Classification ........................................... 54 5.3.1.2. Revised Content Features Classification ................................................ 58 5.3.1.3. Revised Rules of Operationalization ....................................................... 59 5.4. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP FOUR: CODING THE DATA .......................................... 59 5.4.1. Assessing Reliability ....................................................................................... 60 5.5. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP FIVE: ENTERPRISES INTEGRATION SURVEY ................ 62 5.6. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP SIX: MARKET INTEGRATION ....................................... 63 5.7. RESEARCH PROCESS STEP SEVEN: DEVELOPING SCALES ..................................... 64 6. RESULTS .................................................................................................................. 66 6.1. GENERAL INFORMATION SUMMARY .................................................................... 66 6.2. CANADIAN WINERIES WEBSITE DISTRIBUTION .................................................... 66 6.3. CANADIAN WINERIES WEBSITE CLASSIFICATION ................................................ 68 6.4. TESTING OF HYPOTHESES .................................................................................... 74 6.4.1. Descriptive Statistics of the Market Integration Stage ................................... 75 6.4.2. Multinomial Logistic Regression .................................................................... 81 6.4.3. Testing the Hypothesis of Transactions Integration Stage Separation ......... 100 6.5. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF OTHER VARIABLES ............................................... 102 7. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .................................................................... 122 viii 7.1. CONTRIBUTIONS ................................................................................................ 125 7.2. IMPLICATIONS ...................................................................................................