A Profile of Successful Use of the Internet among West Michigan Family Businesses

Most business scholars agree that the Internet, which emerged as a commercial medium for both information and transactions in 1990s, has forever changed the business landscape. E-business applications support all parts of an organization’s value chain, including promotion, procurement, production, recruiting, and more; and there has been a steady increase in online buying in terms of unit volume, dollar volume, and as a percent of total sales (Scheleur and King, 2003). While there is anecdotal evidence that family owned businesses (FOBs) are going online at a rapid pace (Messmer, 2000), there has only been one empirical study reported in the literature focusing on family businesses’ use of the Internet (Bird et al., 2002). This study (Davis and Harveston, 2000) indicates that the use of technology within family firms influences growth and internationalization. However, how and why this occurred is uncertain.