The Role of Information Technology Knowledge in B2B Development

The objective of this work is to analyse the importance of firms’ previous experience with different information technologies (Internet, electronic data interchange (EDI)) in their implementation of e-Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM) and B2B. Moreover, we also study the role of eCRM in B2B development. The results show that experience with systems such as EDI or Internet has a direct influence on the use of e-CRM. There is also a direct and positive transmission of knowledge from e-CRM to B2B, though the former has not been adopted intensively by firms yet. Companies should be aware of the interrelations that exist between the different information technologies. The knowledge accumulated from using a technological innovation can be considered an important aspect of organisational knowledge, which allows firms to obtain a number of benefits as a result of applying systems that are complementary.