About AMA

Executive Summary
The past few years have witnessed phenomenal growth in business activities on the Internet. One of the most important developments in this respect has been the explosion of international marketing activities and the associated emergence of the global information superhighway. The critical question for companies today is what should be done to find leverage points that could result in greater success of this kind of business? However, although marketing academics and practitioners have devoted considerable effort to identifying the critical success factors for business-to-business (B2B) international Internet marketing (IIM), few of them can provide strong theoretical or empirical support in this field, often because of the exploratory nature of their studies. To begin to fill this void, Eid, Elbeltagi, and Zairi conduct a thorough, empirical investigation of B2B IIM. In particular, they discover how far the critical success factors, which they derive from a literature review, have been operationalized in real organizational settings.

Eid, Elbeltagi, and Zairi employ a rigorous qualitative analysis using a multiple-case-study approach to examine how the critical success factors have been addressed by three companies in the petroleum, textile, and electrical industries. Although they obtain these findings through the use of a cross- and within-case analysis, they find several dimensions to be common among these companies. They consider and analyze both the similarities and the differences among the experiences of B2B IIM in the three companies. The description of these companies’ experiences with the factors that affect the success of B2B IIM provides many insights.

The main managerial utility of Eid, Elbeltagi, and Zairi’s article is in the domain of IIM. In particular, IIM professionals can derive a better understanding and measurement of the activities that they undertake in their organizations. Furthermore, the factors proposed in this study should provide information to enhance the current practice of B2B IIM.

Biography
Riyad Eid is Senior Lecturer of Marketing in the School of Business at the University of Wolverhampton. Dr. Eid received a BSc and an MSc in Business Administration from Tanta University (Egypt) and a PhD in Marketing from Bradford University. Dr Eid’s main area of marketing expertise and interest is in the domain of international Internet marketing. He has acted as consultant to several organizations in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. In addition to Journal of International Marketing, he has published recently in Journal of Euromarketing, Journal of Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Journal of Industrial Management & Data Systems, Benchmarking International Journal, and Journal of Internet Research. He has also attended numerous numbers of International Refereed Conferences worldwide. He is a subject matter expert (Marketing) for the e-Total Quality Management college in Dubai. Dr Eid was presented with Emerald Best Paper Award for one of his publications. He is also a member of the editorial review board for several international journals.

Dr. Ibrahim Elbeltagi received his PhD in Strategic Use of Decision Support Systems in local authorities in both Egypt and the United Kingdom from University of Huddersfield. Dr. Elbeltagi has worked as a lecturer and a senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, De Montfort University, and University of Wolverhampton. His current research interests include information technology in small and medium-sized enterprises, knowledge management, decision support systems, e-commerce, and e-government. His publications have appeared in several journals, including Journal of Global Information Management, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Journal of Euromarketing, and several national and international conferences and book chapters. Dr. Elbeltagi is a member of the editorial review board of several international journals in the area of information systems.

Mohamed Zairi is Juran Chair in Total Quality Management, the Head of The European Centre for TQM, and Dean of the e-Total Quality Management College in Dubai. He has written more than 300 articles and 20 books covering different aspects of management. He is a fellow of several professional associations and a member of the International Academy for Quality. He was recently presented with a lifetime achievement award for his contributions in the field of Total Quality Management, benchmarking, and performance management, in which he is recognized as a leading authority. Professor Zairi lectures internationally and has acted as an advisor to many large organizations and various government bodies in different countries in the Middle East, Malaysia, and Europe. He helped launch the first European Best Practice Benchmarking Award in 1995.