INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES USED BY INC. 500 CORPORATE WEB SITES

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1 INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES USED BY INC. 500 CORPORATE WEB SITES Jensen J. Zhao, Ball State University, Sherry Y. Zhao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ABSTRACT This paper reports the findings of a technology content analysis of the Inc. 500 companies Web sites, which addressed three research questions: (a) What Internet/Web technologies do the Inc. 500 companies use most or least on their Web sites? (b) What are their objectives of using the technologies? And (c) how efficiently and effectively do the companies use the technologies on their Web sites? The primary purpose of the study is to provide IT educators with the information of small companies use of information technologies they need to keep curricula current. Keywords: small business, Internet/Web technologies, usage objective, efficiency, and effectiveness INTRODUCTION Small businesses represent about 99% of employers, employ about half of the private sector workforce, and are responsible for about two-thirds to three-quarters of the net new jobs in the U.S. (10). As the Internet/Web technologies are changing the way business is done, American small businesses are investing in information technology products, accessing the Internet, and conducting electronic commerce online (1, 6, 9). Therefore, to understand how small businesses use Internet/Web technologies is important for IT educators to teach students appropriate knowledge and skills that small businesses need. The literature review (e.g., 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13) identified a long list of advanced Web technologies and languages such asp, aspx, asmx, cfml, cgi, css, dll, gsp, jhtml, jsp, php, shtml, wml, xhtml, xml, JavaScript, Java, VBScript, Visual Basic, Visual Basic.Net, Visual C++ and C #, and how the Fortune 500 U.S. largest corporations use such technologies. But no nation-wide study has been found with U.S. small companies. This research gap indicates a need for a technology content analysis of the Inc. 500 companies Web sites since these companies represent the U.S. small businesses. PROBLEM AND PURPOSE This content analysis of the Inc. 500 companies Web sites addressed three research questions: (a) What technologies do the Inc. 500 companies use most or least on their Web sites? (b) What are their objectives of using the technologies? And (c) how efficiently and effectively do the companies use the technologies on their Web sites? The purpose of the study is threefold. First, the findings would be useful for IT educators to keep their curricula current. Second, the findings would enable IT professionals to know how small companies use Internet technologies. Third, the findings would help the Internet technology vendors to compare the market acceptance levels, usage patterns, and effects of their technologies among the Inc. 500 companies. Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems

2 METHODOLOGY Content analysis is one of the major methodologies employed in social science studies (2). This research method is ideal for making inferences by systematically and objectively recording the technology contents on the Web and then identifying the causal relationships between the Internet/Web technologies (products) and their user satisfaction (acceptance) and usage pattern/impact (infusion). To guarantee that the sample would be within 5% variation from the true population value, Jaeger's (4) formula for determining sample size was used, which resulted in 217 out of the Inc. 500 companies Web sites for random sampling. An instrument was developed based on the related literature, which included four major categories: (a) use of technologies, (b) usage objectives, (c) usage efficiency, and (d) usage effectiveness. To measure the usage efficiency, the page loading time per second was rated on the campus LAN, with a Likert scale of (1) very efficient = less than one second, (2) efficient = one to two seconds, (3) less efficient = three to four seconds, and (4) not efficient = more than four seconds. The usage effectiveness was measured with the following Likert scale: (1) very effective, (2) effective, (3) less effective, and (4) not effective, with their respective operational definitions: Very effective means that a Web site has (a) most pages of one to two screens long, (b) wellbalanced design of graphic user interface (GUI) and usability, (c) no more than three interactive pages of fill-in forms for online shopping application, and (d) no run-time error. Effective refers to a Web site that has (a) most pages of two to three screens long, (b) balanced design of GUI and usability, (c) four interactive pages of fill-in forms for online shopping application, and (d) no run-time error. Less effective means that a Web site has (a) most pages of three screens long, (b) less balanced design of GUI and usability, (c) four interactive pages of fill-in forms for online shopping application, and (d) one run-time error. Not effective refers to a Web site that has (a) most pages longer than three screens, (b) less balanced design of GUI and usability, (c) more than four interactive pages of fill-in forms for online shopping application, and (d) more than one run-time error. Two research assistants majored in information systems were trained to develop (a) the common understanding of the Internet/Web technologies and Web file extensions and (b) the ability to read the source code and to record data with the instrument. The data collection started in September and completed in December Each week the research assistants turned in 20 completed questionnaires and then the researchers performed a validation crosscheck by revisiting five randomly selected web sites from the 20 completed questionnaires within the same week. Of the 217 randomly selected companies, 11 companies had no corporate Web sites or Web sites under construction at the time of the data collection. Therefore, data were collected from 206 corporate Web sites, which were 95% of the sample and ensured the valid representation of the population at a 95% confidence level. The collected data were analyzed for frequency counts, percentage distributions, and weighted averages. ANOVA analysis was used to determine any Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems

3 significant differences between the efficiency and effectiveness variables. Table 1 shows the demographic profile of the 206 participating companies, which represent seven major industry groups covering a wide range of businesses. TABLE 1 Demographic Profile of the Participating Inc. 500 Companies (N=206) Group Types of Company Business Frequency Percentage Group 1 Information/Communications 93 45% Group 2 Manufacturing/Processing 34 17% Group 3 Healthcare/Staffing/Consulting Services 26 13% Group 4 Banking/Finance/Insurance 19 9% Group 5 Retail/Wholesale 18 9% Group 6 Transportation/Utilities/Storage 11 5% Group 7 Construction/Engineering/Oil/Gas 5 2% Total % As the content analysis was conducted at the front end of the Web applications, the findings of the analysis do not include the back-end sever-side details. RESULTS The results of the study are presented in the order of (a) use of Web technologies, (b) technology usage objectives, and (c) technology usage efficiency and effectiveness. Use of Web Technologies The Web content analysis identified 13 programming technologies and languages and 10 graphics and multimedia used on the 206 Inc. 500 corporate Web sites (see Table 2). The most frequently used were html (99%), JavaScript (86%), and css (63%). One third of the sites used asp (33%) and VBScript (33%). The remaining technologies were used by 10% or fewer sites, which include cfml (10%), php (5%), jsp (2%) and aspx (2%). Only one site used xml (0.5%). For the Web graphics and multimedia, most sites used gif pictures (95%), jpg pictures (85%), and (70%). Flash movie was used by 36% of the sites, followed by gif animation (20%), plug-in pdf (15%), and FrontPage theme (9%). The least used ones were plug-in video (2%), plug-in audio (1%), and ppt slides (1%). The analysis also identified that more than half (53%) of the sites used three to four Web programming technologies, while 34% used five to six, and 13% used one to two programming technologies. Only one site (0.5%) used a combination of seven programming technologies. Regarding the Web graphics and multimedia, 52% of the sites used three to four types of graphics and multimedia, and 47% used one to two types. Only 1.5% used five or more types of Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems

4 Web graphics and multimedia. TABLE 2 Technologies Used on Inc. 500 Corporate Web Sites (N=206) Technologies Used Usage Frequency Percentage Programming html % JavaScript % css % asp 68 33% VBScript 68 33% cfml 21 10% php 10 5% cgi 9 4% shtml 9 4% jsp 5 2% aspx 4 2% doc 2 1% xml 1.5% Graphics/Multimedia gif picture % jpg picture % % flash movie 74 36% gif animation 42 20% plug-in pdf 30 15% FrontPage theme 19 9% plug-in video 3 2% plug-in audio 2 1% ppt slides 2 1% Technology Usage Objectives The results in Table 3 show the technologies used for home page, public and investor relations, information search, business to consumers (B2C), business to business (B2B), career, and contact-us sites. As the mean scores indicate, only five programming technologies were used more frequently than the others for all the above seven specific objectives, with html (59%) on the top, followed by JavaScript (51%), css (38%), asp (19%), and BVScript (19%). The Web graphics and multimedia used frequently for the seven objectives were gif picture (57%), jpg picture (43%), (19%), and flash movie (11%). By contrast, gif animation was used more often only for home page (19%) while plug-in pdf was a little more frequently used for public and investor relations (12%) than for the other specific objectives. Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems

5 TABLE 3 Technologies Used by Inc. 500 for Specific Corporate Web Site Objectives (N=206) Tech Used for Home P PR/IR Info-srch B2C B2B Career Contact Mean Programming html 90% 86% 31% 29% 88% 42% 47% 59% JavaScript 75% 72% 30% 26% 81% 38% 38% 51% css 53% 53% 21% 17% 62% 29% 31% 38% asp 24% 26% 15% 12% 32% 12% 12% 19% VBScript 25% 25% 14% 12% 33% 12% 11% 19% cfml 4% 7% 4% 1% 6% 6% 3% 6% cgi 2% 2% 2% 2% 3% 0% 1% 4% shtml 3% 4% 2% 2% 3% 2% 2% 3% php 2% 3% 3% 2% 3% 1% 1% 2% jsp 1% 1% 1% 1% 3% 1% 0% 1% aspx 1% 1% 0% 0% 3% 1% 1% 1% xml 1% 0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0%.3% doc 0% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%.1% Graphics/Multimedia gif picture 88% 81% 32% 32% 86% 39% 39% 57% jpg picture 70% 69% 27% 24% 70% 25% 19% 43% 8% 34% 8% 3% 15% 17% 48% 19% flash movie 31% 16% 5% 3% 12% 6% 5% 11% gif animation 19% 10% 5% 9% 6% 1% 0% 7% FrontP. theme 7% 6% 2% 3% 6% 2% 4% 4% plug-in pdf 3% 12% 2% 2% 6% 0% 1% 4% plug-in video 2% 1% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0% 1% plug-in audio 0% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%.1% ppt slides 0% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%.1% Technology Usage Efficiency and Effectiveness Table 4 illustrates that 12 Web programming technologies and nine graphic and multimedia formats were ranked as being used efficiently and effectively on the 206 Inc. 500 corporate Web sites. Microsoft doc and ppt file formats were not listed because they only work well on Internet Explorer browser but not on Netscape and other browsers. As Table 4 shows, only html JavaScript, and gif animation demonstrated significantly higher efficiency than effectiveness on the Inc. 500 corporate Web sites. Finally, since only one site used xml programming technology, statistical test could not be computed for the significant difference between its usage efficiency and effectiveness. Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems

6 TABLE 4 Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Technologies Used by Inc. 500 Corporate Web Sites Technologies Used Efficiency Mean a Effectiveness Mean Sig. Programming xml cgi jsp html * JavaScript * css asp VBScript shtml php cfml aspx Graphics/Multimedia gif animation * FrontPage theme jpg picture gif picture plug-in pdf plug-in video flash movie plug-in audio a Efficiency and effectiveness were measured with 1 = very efficient/effective, 2 = efficient/effective, 3 = less efficient/effective, and 4 = not efficient/effective. *Differences between efficiency and effectiveness were significant; p<.05. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This study identified the following six technologies used most frequently on the Inc. 500 corporate Web sites: html, JavaScript, css, gif pictures, jpg pictures, and . These six technologies were also identified as frequently used for specific objectives such as home page, public and investor relations, information search, B2C, B2B, career, and contact-us sites. Clearly, these six matured Internet technologies appear to be most popular and cost-effective for small companies to develop Web sites and business applications. Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems

7 Second, xml and aspx, the two new leading-edge Web technologies, were identified as being used only on one and four sites, respectively. This low rate of deploying xml and aspx technologies among small companies seems to indicate that the two new technologies are still at the introduction stage to the market. Finally, the 206 Inc. 500 corporate Web sites demonstrated the efficient and effective use of Web programming technologies, graphics and multimedia. This finding suggests that the Inc. 500 corporate Web sites could serve as models for small companies to design and develop corporate Web sites and e-business applications. REFERENCES 1. Downes, L. (2000, July). E-business strategies: Invisible capital. Industry Standard, 3(26), Frey, L. R., Botan, C. H., Friedman, P. G., & Kreps, G. L. (1991). Investigating communication: An introduction to research method. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 3. Imparato, N. (2002, December). Business impact: Intelligent video technology joins strategic IT. Intelligent Enterprise, 6(1), 10 & Jaeger, R. M. (1984). Sampling in education and social sciences. New York: Longman Publishing Co. 5. McCarthy, J. (2002, November 18). Envisioning enterprise data. InfoWorld, 24(46), Perry, J. (2000, June 19). Online calculators give the measure of your days. U.S. News & World Report, 128(24), Taft, D. K. (2002, November 25). IBM boosts WebSphere with SOAP support and autonomics. eweek, 19(47), Taft, D. K. (2003). Web services: Integration bargain. eweek, 20(5), U.S. Small Business Administration. (2000). Small business expansions in electronic commerce. Retrieved July 2, 2003, from U.S. Small Business Administration. (2003). Small business economic indicators for Retrieved January 7, 2004, from World Wide Web Consortium. (2002). W3C technology keywords. Retrieved August 15, 2002, from Web Developers Virtual Library. (2002). Web authoring. Retrieved August 15, 2002, from Zhao, J. J. (2003). Technology content analysis of the Fortune 500 corporate Web sites. Issues in Information Systems, 4(2), Volume V, No 1, Issues in Information Systems