Is e-marketing a source of sustainable business performance? Predicting the role of top management support with various interaction factors

Abstract

The evolution of the sustainable business performance in relation to the technology integration reveals a significant revolution but regrettably is given little global attention, thus compelling the firms to reexamine the approach for their business growth. Considerably, e-marketing has been recognized as an emerging practice and plays a vital strategic tool to bring sellers and buyers on a digital platform. Besides, this study analyzes the moderating effects of trading partners (TPs) and competitive pressure (CP) in the relationship between top management support (TMS) and use of e-marketing (UEM). Moreover, the interactive role of government support (GS) and technological opportunism (TOP) was also analyzed between the UEM and sustainable firm performance (SFP). The study also discussed the mediating role of e-marketing usage between TMS and SFP. The data (n = 293) were collected from the marketing managers employed in the textile firms of Pakistan. Additionally, the findings revealed that TMS had a significant direct relationship with the UEM and the SFP. Moreover, UEM mediated the relationship between TMS and SFP. Finally, TP’s pressure moderated the relationship between TMS and UEM, and TOP moderate the relationship between UEM and SFP, whereas CP and GS were unable to moderate the relationship particularly in current study context. However, this study has contributed empirically to several recognized relationships among the variables and extends the existing knowledge of literature. The study has contributed empirically to several recognized relationships among the variables and extends the existing knowledge of literature by leaving certain aspects of research for future studies.

Keywords

• e-marketing
• sustainability
• business performance
• top management support
• technological opportunism