Small and medium sized manufacturer performance on third party B2B electronic marketplaces: The role of enabling and IT capabilities

This research investigates the determinants of the performance of small and medium sized manufacturers on business-to-business electronic marketplaces (B2B EMs). Based on the resource-based view, the framework proposed suggests that a manufacturing firm's performance on a B2B EM is determined by EM enabling capabilities, namely the online marketing capability, flexible manufacturing capability and content management capability. Further, the framework posits that these EM enabling capabilities are in turn determined by the firm's IT capability. Data from 358 online manufacturers participating in a B2B EM is collected and analyzed. The results confirm our hypotheses that the online marketing capability, flexible manufacturing capability and content management capability fully mediate the impact of the IT capability on the firm's online performance. Furthermore, the online marketing capability is found to be a stronger factor in influencing the manufacturer's online performance than the others.