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At present, the rate of small firm adoption of the Internet's ubiquitous World Wide Web (the web) far exceeds the actual exploitation its commercial potential. An inability to strategically acquire, comprehend and use external knowledge is proposed as a major barrier to optimal exploitation of the Internet. This paper discusses the limitations of applying market orientation theory to explain and guide small firm exploitation of the web. Absorptive capacity is introduced as an alternative theory that when viewed from an evolutionary perspective provides potentially more insightful discussion. An inability to detect emerging business model dominant designs is suggested to be a mixture of the nature of the technology that supports the Internet and underdeveloped small firm knowledge processing capabilities. We conclude with consideration of the practical and theoretical implications that arise from the paper.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Small Firms, Market Orientation, Absorptive Capacity, Evolutionary Theory, and The Internet
Research Division:	Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Research Group:	Business and Management
Research Field:	Small Business Management
Objective Division:	Economic Framework
Objective Group:	Management and Productivity
Objective Field:	Technological and Organisational Innovation
UTAS Author:	Jones, C (Dr Colin Jones)
UTAS Author:	Hecker, R (Dr Rob Hecker)
ID Code:	29124
Year Published:	2003
Deposited By:	Management
Deposited On:	2003-08-01
Last Modified:	2010-06-04
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