Small and mid-sized businesses and Internet use: unrealized potential?
Abstract
The findings of a study by Auger and Gallaugher (1997), in addition to suppositions and
anecdotal evidence provided in a number of articles, suggest that there may be key areas of
difference as well as similarities in Internet usage patterns among small and mid-sized
businesses. Since large businesses are both potential customers of and suppliers to small to
mid-sized businesses, it is important to understand their Internet usage patterns as well.
The study was designed as a preliminary examination contrasting such usage among large
and small and mid-sized owner-operated firms. Study findings suggest mid-sized
businesses may be at a competitive disadvantage in their current operational use of the
Internet. Small businesses in the study were more likely than mid-sized or large firms to
have a home page and to reveal computer/technology programs as potential Internet
services needed to improve current operations. Future research must continue to examine
the role the Internet can play in allowing small and mid-sized businesses to be more
competitive in today’s technology based global environment.
Key words: Internet usage；Small and mid-sized operations；Planning and marketing；
Potential operations
Introduction
The growth of small and mid-sized owneroperated enterprises plays a significant role in
the economic vitality of a nation. Small and mid-sized businesses comprise more than 99
percent of all US employers. Accounting for nearly 60 percent of the private sector work
force, these businesses represent the primary engine for new job growth. More than half of
all US sales and 40 percent of gross domestic product can be attributed to these businesses,
which represent a dominant share of all private sector business net worth (Newsweek, 31
March 1997).
Planning is a critical factor in the success of any enterprise. Today’s small businesses face
an increasingly unstable marketplace rife with change. Dominating the changes in the
macro environment are technological advances affecting telecommunications and
information processing.Perhaps no single aspect of these changes has reverberated as
clearly as the growth of the Internet. This growth raises issues which concern not only how
the Internet is currently being used, but also which areas of Internet use may offer
additional resources for small and mid-sized businesses (Guthrie and Austin, 1996).
The Internet is a unique medium which allows information to be accessed without
geographic location constraints. As a communications tool, the Internet (and its graphical
component the World Wide Web) has the capability of delivering messages enhanced by
color, sound, real or animated images, as well as twoway interactions. Growth of this
