Path.to.Successful.Implementation.in.Small.and Large.Firms

There may be a giant step from initiation and adoption of innovations to successful implementation
of them. In particular, an Internet-based marketing channel may imply difficult
changes in internaThus, we were interested in the characteristics of those organizations reporting successful
implementation of interactive technology.
The correlations found in this explorative part of the analysis indicate that the explanations
for success or failure in implementation differ from the explanations for success or failure in
initiation and adoption. Willingness to cannibalize seems to be a less-important driverl procedures before interactive features make it useful to customer
These findings as well as findings from a related study of Internet banking indicate that
the adoption and implementation of Web technologies are complex processes that can be
understood as both technology push and demand pull processes, and they are subject to
disagreement (Flohr Nielsen, 2006). Conflicts grow out of structural differentiation or specialization
and are found at the inter-organizational, inter-departmental, and interpersonal
levels. Differences in the willingness to cannibalize do not necessarily develop into manifest
conflict, but opinions often differ between key people such as IT and marketing managers.
Thus, when identifying a firm�s willingness to cannibalize as an important antecedent
to early adoption and implementation of Internet-based marketing channels and Internet
banking, it must be understood that such willingness reflects an overall attitude that results
either from compromise between key actors� different attitudes or from the defeat of one
or more actors.
From an organizational change view this seems to have important implications for practitioners.
In planned change processes it has to be taken into account how conflicts are handled.
Often it may become necessary to include participative organizational development techniques
as well as conflict-handling interventions. When implementation success seems to
be very dependent on top management support, it is in line with a recent meta-analysis of
information systems implementation (Sharma & Yetton, 2003). This study shows that task
interdependence moderates the effect of management support on implementation success.
Since the activities connected to sophisticated marketing channels are highly interdependent
and cross-functional, it is important that management provides the resources and incentives
necessary to accomplish these projects.
However, the capability of organizations to fully exploit their current investments in installed
IT is generally an issue involving complex post-adoptive behaviors, and neither
prior use, habit, nor feature-centric views have been fully addressed in previous research
(Jasperson, Carter, & Zmud, 2005). Because of such deficiencies we can only cautiously
suggest that the successful implementation and use of Internet-based marketing may also
need interventions that induce members of the organization to engage in learning on these
IT-enabled work systems.