Digital Business Strategy and Firm Performance: the Mediation Effects of E-collaboration Capability

Nowadays, digital technologies (e.g., big data, cloud and mobility) have changed the firms’ activities. Many firms begin to utilize digital resources to formulate and execute digital business strategy. However, there is little empirical research focusing on explaining this novel phenomenon. In this paper, we proposed a framework which describes the value creation and appropriation process of digital business strategy in the digital settings. Our research model is tested by survey data and financial data from a sample of 138 manufacturing firms which adopted e-selling process. The result provides strong supports to the proposed research model. In particular, we find that, as hypothesized, the impact of digital business strategy on firm performance is completely mediated by e-collaboration capability which is one kind of digital capabilities. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.