Adoption of virtual organization by Taiwanese electronics firms

Purpose – This empirical study aims to examine an organizational response to the needs of e‐business, virtual organization, and associated determinants of its successful adoption in the Taiwanese electronics industry. Design/methodology/approach – The research examined a large sample of Taiwanese electronics companies. A research population of Taiwanese electronics companies was drawn from firms listed on both the TAIEX and the OTC markets and included 305 firms. Questionnaires were sent to firm administrators who were asked the degree to which the company had undertaken virtual organizational structuring that was enabled by information technologies. Findings – The findings of this research reveal significant impacts of individual and organizational factors, but no effect for environmental variables on virtual organization adoption. Research limitations/implications – While the results might provide clues for understanding the adoption of virtual organization structure in the manufacturing sector, there still remains uncertainty in generalizing to service industries. The variety of types of service firms and their outputs makes any generalization to services from this study difficult. Practical implications – First, information technologies may provide the potential means to implement innovative organization structures, such as virtual organization, to respond to the pressures of change. Second, the adoption and diffusion of virtual organization might transform firms to meet the demands of e‐commerce. Originality/value – The study identifies factors which may impact on the successful use of information technologies to implement innovative organization structures, such as virtual organizations, to respond to the pressures of change.