SMEs performance: Leveraging marketing process through e-business

The importance of the Internet in supporting business applications and attaining competitive advantage through the electronic business (e-business) process is widely acknowledged. However, many SMEs have been slow in adopting the Internet and even those SMEs that have adopted the technology have not fully utilized it to support their business applications. The reason behind this scenario could be the lack of awareness concerning the necessity and possibility of adopting e-business for specific functions along the value chain. Thus, the aims of this study are to investigate the extent of Internet marketing practices to support business applications among SMEs in Malaysia as well as the outcome of Internet marketing implementations on the business performance of SMEs. The results indicate that the usage of Internet varies across the marketing practices and is likely to influence business performance.