Information technology impact on market orientation in e-business

This study presents how information technology (IT) contributes to market orientation (MO). The authors analyze the way companies deal with market intelligence to facilitate the identification of customer needs and to generate the appropriate response to such needs. Research methodology includes multiple case studies of retail companies with e-business operations (the three largest in Brazil). The findings indicate that investment in interorganizational systems strongly supports the development of MO capabilities. The article develops a framework to help companies in assessing how IT applications support their MO behaviors; as an academic contribution, the study presents two hypotheses for future studies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.