Title: E-commerce capability and CEO attributes: impacts on export performance

Authors: Ilham Ait Bouazza; Yunji Hwang; Seung Hun Han

Addresses: Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation, School of Business and Technology Management, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Munji-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea ' School of Business and Technology Management, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Munji-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea ' Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation, School of Business and Technology Management, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Munji-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea

Abstract: This study examines how firm e-commerce capabilities and CEO characteristics affect firms' export performance. Using the measure 'e-commerce capability' obtained by text-mining from 10-K filings, we find that the firm's e-commerce capabilities positively affect domestic sales performance and affect negatively export performance. Also we find that those negative effects are stronger for firms with female CEOs. However, overconfident CEOs and older CEOs mitigate those negative effects. Our results indicate that the impact of firm's e-commerce capabilities on firm's export performance varies depending on the CEO characteristics which are closely related to CEO's risk preference and risk-taking behaviour. Furthermore, we find that firm's e-commerce capabilities for export positively affect firm value. This finding indicates that e-commerce capability is essential to increase firm value. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and the upper echelon theory (UET).

Keywords: CEO characteristics; e-commerce; export performance; resource-based view; RBV; text-mining; upper echelon theory; UET.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2023.132877

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2023 Vol.15 No.2, pp.165 - 189

Received: 15 Apr 2023
Accepted: 24 Apr 2023
Published online: 13 Aug 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article