Extant streams of literature on technology sourcing, website personalization and social media marketing are distinct from one another and hence are unable to explain the impact of technology sourcing for website personalization and social media marketing on sales. To address this gap, we use various concepts such as efficiency, adaptability, risks of dependency, lack of quality control, asset-specificity and tacit knowledge to hypothesize the direct effect of technology sourcing on sales as well as the indirect effect through social media performance. Using survey data from 105 U.S. e-retailers, we show that e-retailers using mixed technology sourcing for website personalization have greater sales than e-retailers that use either internally or externally developed technology. On the contrary, e-retailers selecting externally developed technology for social media marketing have greater sales than e-retailers that offer social media marketing that uses either internally developed technology or mixed technology sourcing.

Literature on website personalization has adopted a demand-side perspective and studied either the direct effects of website personalization or the moderating effect of other demand-side variables on performance of website personalization. In so doing, the moderating effect of crucial supply-side variables, like technology choices for website personalization, has been ignored. To address the interaction between the supply-side and the demand-side, we ask the following question: What is the moderating effect of firm-level technology sourcing choices on the relation between website personalization and sales performance? We use the concepts of information efficiency and adaptability to develop our hypotheses. Using data from 500 US e-retailers, we contend that offering website personalization has a positive effect on sales, and that among firms that offer website personalization, the ones that use both internally and externally developed technology are likely to have greater sales performance than firms that use either internally or externally developed website personalization.

Service retail channel (SRC) expansion is common in B2B markets, but expansions into high-tech channels involve substantial market failure risks. Successful expansions create questions about the best way to integrate new and existing channels. Should the firm use its existing brand to market the new channel, or should it develop a new brand? Should the technology for the new channel be developed in-house or outsourced? The level of integration of both marketing and technical assets determines the perceived consumer benefits and market acceptance of high-tech SRCs. Using the concepts of risk, resources, and control, this study proposes a theoretical framework, tested with data about Internet banking in the United States. The results show that integration decisions have important, counterintuitive consequences. Specifically technical integration leads to higher perceived consumer benefits and thus greater market acceptance, whereas brand integration lowers the market acceptance of a new SRC.