Metaphysical Poetry Definition Example For Students

Metaphysical Poetry Definition Metaphysical poetry was originally a style of poetry to describe the poet John Donnes work, but then later extended to a school of 17th century poets. The verse deals with the use of philosophy to explain the human drama in the universe. Their poetic style and method is what linked the poets together. Here, the poets Andrew Marvell, who wrote To His Coy Mistress, George Herbert who wrote Love and John Donne who wrote The Sun Rising all fit into the metaphysical grouping. All the poems include an argument within themselves. The poem To His Coy Mistress is structured within a syllogistic framework which begins with an initial premise, then introduces a qualification to the premise, and ends with a resolution to the conflict. In addition, Marvell manages to marry a syllogistic framework with a passionate poem of seduction. He firstly argues that if the couple had all the time in the world, he would woo his lady so slowly her coyness would be irrelevant. Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. He proceeds to outline what he would do out of love for his lady if they were both to live for much longer, mentioning such lengths of time as centuries and ages. Throughout this initial premise of if, he uses esoteric imagery to illustrate his argument. For example, he describes his life as a vegetable love, which not only gives connotations of a slow, developing love to grow for his mistress, but also the description of a vegetable soul. The vegetable soul is the lowest level of the soul in the Renaissance concept in the levels of reason. Therefore, this suggests a kind of love that could exist without sensual enjoyment and suggests, by its association with the vegetable soul, that it is a lower form of love than sexual love. This is because the middle soul the sensible soul deals with passion and love. This use of metaphysical conceit is common in all the poems, and Marvells technique of drawing upon philosophy to illustrate his argument gives the poem an intellectual appeal, not just a visual one. There is also complete devotion displayed in this first stage of the argument, namely: I would Love you ten years before the flood. And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. Here, this deals with the extremity of his argument. He is prepared to love her ten years before the flood presumably Noahs Ark, and would not be at all insulted if she refused to love him back until the conversion of the Jews, seemingly until the end of time. Once his opinions have been established, he then continues to t he second stage of his argument. Beginning with the conjunction of But a word that prepares us for an alternative argument, Marvells second stage in his syllogistic framework refutes the initial premise by addressing the concepts of reality. He now asserts that time is an issue, having already established that if it wasnt, his method of seduction would be different. By firstly shifting to the present tense, which creates a sense of immediacy, he then uses more stylistic devices to convey the sense of urgency that is necessary when he is discussing the lack of time that the couple possess. For example, he firstly describes the winged chariot that is hurrying near. The winged chariot metaphor gives the reader connotations of a fast and furious speed, which is then neatly juxtaposed with the Deserts of vast eternity which gives an atmosphere of a slow, fruitless future. .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a , .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .postImageUrl , .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a , .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:hover , .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:visited , .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:active { border:0!important; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:active , .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uaf5120545adf1cedb32e83a9e4aef86a:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Cousin Kate EssayMarvell then has a pronoun switch, which draws the woman directly into the argument and enhances the sense of intimacy, with the intimate form of you thy. Marvell then uses grim, humorous, phallic imagery to demonstrate how lust will inevitably die, and the consequence of there being no lust in death. Thy beauty shall no more be found; . then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity. There is a grim, dark humor present, not only with the phallic imagery of the worms, but also the use of quaint, which also had a crude, underlying meaning at the time when the poem was written. The third and final stage is the resolution of the argument in the syllogistic framework. Marvell asserts that due to him being unable to love her slowly and realizing that time is precious, he resorts to the logical conclusion of a quickening of affection: Now let us sport us while we may This hurried tone is present throughout the final stage, however Marvell also uses the realities of life to subvert the premise of the first part of the argument. To do so, he uses extremely strong imagery again to conclude his argument with the last part of the argument concentrating on sexual imagery, such as the amorous birds of prey/Rather at once our time devour which can also be extended to an image of the couple seizing control of the issue by devouring time and the iron gates of life. Also, adverb use enhances the intensity of his emotion, such as Now.. , being an imperative conveying his sense of urgency to the reader, and Let us also asserting their mutual, joint enterprise, and willing insinuating a sexual eagerness. The use of metaphysical conceits here make the argument much more than a brief sexual encounter, but a vigorous sexual union where Marvell wishes to defy barriers and the concept of time, which is summed up in a crescendo in lines 45 and 46: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run. The last couplet sums up the whole argument Marvell expresses that although they cannot stop time, they as a couple can control how fast the time goes. This is reminiscent of the carpe diem theme and the poem by Herrick: Gather ye rosebuds celebrating the enjoyment of life and the need to seize the day. Furthermore, the words Stand still can be related back to Joshua in the Old Testament, where he commanded the sun to stand still whilst he did heroic deeds. This is clever, ironic humor, as earlier in the poem he implies the lack of an afterlife, as the woman is destined to lie in the marble vault and only vast deserts implying nothing of eternity lies before them, inste ad of the spirit being reborn into an eternal life. Marvell also uses the rhyme scheme of the poem to re-emphasize this union of two parts. The entire poem consists of rhyming couplets, which takes two separate lines and make a matching pair out of them. In addition, the concentrated style of the poem and the frequent use of enjambment demonstrate the compression and intensity of Marvells argument. Marvells uses learned and diverse reference to not only the Bible but also to philosophy, combined with the logical structure unusual for a love ballad, as the structure almost takes on a business-like arrangement, frank emotion and sexuality and humor although still with a light tone. Although the basic argument is a sexual conquest, it also is an assertion of human capability to defy the imperatives of time. All the metaphysical poets have drawn on the same key features of not only using logic and reasoning to explain intense emotions, but also draw upon specialized areas such as law, religion, and philosophy to describe their love, often in conceits an unusual tactic to adopt, which produces a witty and humorous style to many pieces of work in this particular school of poets.

The Best Method to Use for Sample Argument Essay Topics

The Best Method to Use for Sample Argument Essay Topics When you locate a persuasive essay outline which works well for you, you can adapt it to use whenever building different essays. You may have a look at the further information on how best to compose an eye-catching essay introduction with a hook. Remember that the amount of your essay is contingent on the assignment offered to you. No matter the quantity or variety of research involved, argumentative essays must set a very clear thesis and follow sound reasoning. Developing a criterion for the evaluation essay topic together with the effective judgment from the face of the author is the fundamental requirement of an evaluation essay. The upcoming few paragraphs will compose most of your essay. An introduction paragraph is just the very first paragraph of an essay. Therefore, many students and employees decide to acquire affordable essay rather than writing it themselves. To compose a fantastic argumentative essay, there are four important components of the essay you're likely to have to know about. You don't need to find super technical with legal argumentative essays, but be certain to do your homework on what the recent laws about your preferred topic actually say. If you're new to writing argumentative essays, there are a couple of vital factors which you can learn that may help you compose a far better argumentative essay. The Rise of Sample Argument Essay Topics Most conclusions are just a paragraph in length as the conclusion is predicted to be an overview of the whole essay. It's not sufficient to simply disagree with a different point of view or opinion. You should first decide on a good topic with an argument, credible information to strengthen your viewpoint, a good stance on your side, and a fantastic counter-argument that wil l help you sound less biased. It's important to select debatable argumentative essay topics since you need opposing points that you are able to counter to your own points. The question of argument essay is in the shape of an argument written by means of an author. Whether the writer is correct in maintaining his thought or he's mistaken and ignores some vital issues that may render the argument baseless in some scenarios. The argument essay also requires you to have a superior language. Writing an argumentative essay can at times be confusing as you don't necessarily understand how to compose a convincing argument. Remember an argumentative essay is based more on facts instead of emotion. Any excellent task finishes with a terrific conclusion and the very best examples of the argumentative essay will arrive in with a conclusion which has an overview of all of the points together with a gist of the evidences provided. Besides, keep in mind that the secret to a prosperous argumentative essay is in finding suitable evidence to back up your opinion. A very good argumentative essay ought to have a particular statement that's arguing. When it has to do with writing an argumentative essay, the main matter to do is to select a topic and an argument which you can really get behind. What's the world like as is in connection with your issue. The most significant thing you need to understand is that my opinion simply doesn't matter. The issue is that it's tough to find evidence for the presence of mind-independent ethical obligations. Explain to your audience your selection of the subject, why it's critical, and the way you talking about it can really make a difference. In case you haven't introduced any kind of solution in your essay, perhaps encourage other people to become more conscious of your topic. Many brilliant individuals who achieved success in life proved actually academic drop-outs. So, it's better to ensure it is outstanding and nothing short of perfect so the audience agrees with you in the very long run. The cost of an essay depends upon the quantity of effort the writer has to exert. You may continue to keep your argumentative essays for your upcoming job portfolio in case they're highly graded. Argumentative essay topics are so important since they are debatableand it's vital to at all times be critically contemplating the world around us. Essentially anything that must be understood before reading the remainder of the essay is background info, and ought to be included in the introduction.

Essay Topics on Low Income Families

Essay Topics on Low Income FamiliesThere are many subjects that can be explored in an exploratory essay, and this includes exploratory essay topics on low income families. There are a lot of people in low income families. The reasons for this are complex and there is a lot that needs to be said about how such people are able to keep their homes, to maintain homes, to feed themselves and their families, and to provide for their children.Many times people get confused when they find that they are researching topics on low income families and they are asked to write an essay about a specific topic. The topic will have to include one or more of the following: one or more social, economic or environmental factors that cause family instability. The essay topic should also discuss the ways in which social programs, neighborhood associations, and government policies help to alleviate and correct family problems.Some essays will try to tackle issues that have to do with the educational level of a person in a low income family. Such an essay may highlight some of the difficulties a student has in keeping up with their classes because of the difficulty in making ends meet.Sometimes money is a problem, because a person cannot find the money to go to school because they have a large budget deficit. This usually results in the student doing poorly on standardized tests because the student can not afford the testing material that is necessary to pass the test.They may feel that they cannot afford the cost of college and end up moving back home. If they have other children and they are younger than them, they may be separated from them during the time when they are living at home and without the presence of their father or mother to take care of them.They could become victims of domestic violence and become homeless. The topic should be able to explain the various methods that are being used to help families stay together by putting them in shelters and putting them up for tem porary stays in hotels so that they can have somewhere to sleep, something to eat and to stay warm during the cold months.The topic should also be able to provide some insight as to how it is possible to provide for children who are with their father or mother. The kids should be educated about how to take care of themselves and about healthy choices that they should make during their younger years so that they will not end up needing the services of the shelter or any other assistance.These are a few examples of essay topics on low income families. One way that someone may be able to write a great topic on this subject is by using the internet to research on these topics. The internet allows for someone to research all that they need in order to write a quality essay on the subject of family instability.

Free Research Paper Generator - What You Need to Know

Free Research Paper Generator - What You Need to KnowFinding the right Free Research Paper Generator will help you to generate the best possible research paper that you can. Most of the research papers that you can come up with do not quite meet your educational standard. For some of you it will be a difficulty to get the required number of marks, although not all of you will be fortunate enough to get the required score. No matter which results you get you can be certain that this will help you understand what you need to do next for your research project.What you need to do next will be provided by the various online resources that you will find online. All you need to do is to copy and paste the necessary document to get the job done. There are no limits to what you can do and you will be sure to have the highest degree of achievement from the research paper generator that you choose.If you are looking for the most efficient free research paper generator then you can find one onli ne or off. There are a variety of websites that you can visit that will help you get the work done on time. You will not have to go through a process of photocopying and proofreading when you can do this right on the online research paper generator site.The source of the free research paper generator can be found in several forms. You will find some of the things on the internet that are available to download. These sites have those things downloaded to you on a computer. You will also find that they have tools to get the most out of the online research papers that you find online.If you are looking for the most efficient research paper generator then you can find this kind of resource on the Internet. It can be downloaded, checked, and validated. You do not have to go through a lengthy process to get the work done. With the help of the online tool youwill be able to get the best results possible.The free research paper generator can be downloaded on a computer. The study course tha t you will find there is a classroom-type program that will help you understand the work process. After you finish your course you will be able to use the software to get the work done. This will make sure that you get the work done and not get distracted by the tedious process of creating the research paper.Using the search engines will help you come up with the best possible research paper that you can. By using search engines you will find that there are a variety of sources that you can use. Just make sure that you choose the source that is best for you.

An Essay School For Grad School in Social Work - Sample Essays to Show Your Writing Skills

An Essay School For Grad School in Social Work - Sample Essays to Show Your Writing SkillsIn the job market nowadays, it is hard to find a graduate program that offers an essay writing course. The program is mostly focused on clinical experiences, professional writing skills, clinical skills, and interviews. While many schools offer one-on-one therapy sessions or counselling, not many offer an on-campus writing class.This is because the large number of graduates, who are planning to apply to graduate programs, having little experience in writing. It can be a cause of confusion for the employers, as they ask you how much time you spent in writing the paper, but they don't ask you if you have experience in essay writing. This gives them some doubts when hiring you, as you will have to teach them that you have experience in writing before they consider hiring you.If you have experience in this type of writing, you need to display that in your resume. Most employers do not want the past history in the job, they are interested in the present knowledge, experience and skills you can offer to them. So how do you get the employers to take a look at your resume, instead of other types of writing? How can you show your experience in writing with minimal risk to the employer?An essay school for grad school in social work samples are what you should look for. You must meet the essay writing requirements, depending on your student status and the employer's needs. Most of the schools are geared towards teaching students to write effective essays that will impress the employers.However, unlike clinical experience, the essay is not only important but the writing style is also important. The more direct and candid your information in the essays, the better. Another way to showcase your writing style is to include photos in your sample essays, to show how well you research, understand and use colloquial speech.Small samples are a great way to show your writing skills, whether yo u are hiring a grad school in social work, a clinical placement, or any other job. However, remember that you need to practice, so make sure you don't rush your research and analysis. You need to come up with a good idea, then collect the research and write it.It is better to write a rough draft first, because it is a lot easier to edit than a final copy, especially if you don't know anything about writing. If you are unsure about your writing skills, there are many book publishers that offer editing services. All you need to do is provide them with the samples, and they will edit it according to your style and purpose of writing.

PageSpeed Insights Score Why Faster Hosting is More Important

You want your WordPress site to load lightning-fast. And if youre like most of us, when you think of improving your sites page load times to get that lightning-fast designation, you think of your Google PageSpeed Insights score.For many website owners, its their white whale. Getting a perfect score on PageSpeed Insights is the impossible quest that will magically solve all of their page speed woes.But is a high PageSpeed Insights score the be-all and end-all of fast page load times? Sorry, but no. If your focus is on improving your sites page load times, finding a better host will often take you further.In this post, Im going to run a real test to show you that high-performance hosting will do more for your page load times than endlessly striving to improve your PageSpeed Insights score.What is Google PageSpeed Insights? Should you care?If youre not already familiar, PageSpeed Insights is a Google-offered tool that helps you both analyze and optimize your websites performance for des ktop and mobile visitors. Before I get into what exactly that entails, lets talk about what PageSpeed Insights is not:Its not a tool that gives you a real number for how long your page takes to load. You need other tools for that. Instead, PageSpeed Insights gives you a score from 0-100 based on how well your site is technically optimized, with separate scores for desktop and mobile.To calculate this score, Google uses two metrics (direct quote):time to above-the-fold load: Elapsed time from the moment a user requests a new page and to the moment the above-the-fold content is rendered by the browser.time to full page load: Elapsed time from the moment a user requests a new page to the moment the page is fully rendered by the browser.And while Googles suggestions are important, they readily admit that the test only considers the network-independent aspects of page performance. That means PageSpeed Insights does not, among other aspects, directly consider the speed of your host.So whi le PageSpeed Insights gives you great suggestions for speeding up the technical aspects of your page, getting a perfect score on PageSpeed Insights will never be enough to completely overcome a slow host.In Googles own words, the absolute performance of the page will still be dependent upon a users network connection.* It should be noted that Google is also talking about a visitors personal Internet speed.Do visitors care if you score 100/100 on PageSpeed Insights?No. Most of your visitors wont have a single clue what PageSpeed Insights is, let alone care about your sites score.Plenty of data says that users care about how quickly your page loads in absolute terms. Akamai found that, at least for eCommerce sites, 30% of users want sites to load in under 1 second. And on mobile, 74% of users will abandon a site that takes longer than 5 seconds to load.(Charts by Visualizer Lite.)But as we learned in the previous section, PageSpeed Insights does not calculate the absolute page load ti me of your site.Does a high PageSpeed Insights score equal a quick-loading site?Yes and no. A higher PageSpeed Insights score will likely improve the speed of your website. It will get you a quicker loading site.But heres the thing:Your website will only ever be as fast as the hardware thats powering it. A high-quality web host and good caching will almost always take you further than a 25-point improvement in your PageSpeed Insights score.To prove that, Im going to run a real-world testHeres how Ill set it up:Two fresh WordPress installs. One on Kinsta (high performance managed hosting) and one on Arvixe (cheap shared hosting from the same parent company as Bluehost and HostGator).Default Twenty Seventeen themeJetpack installed and activated (no Photon CDN, though)Imported WordPress test dataOne post with one ~150 KB full-size unoptimized imageUsing those settings, Ill run each site through PageSpeed Insights and use Pingdom Tools (testing from San Jose) to calculate the absolute p age load time for each site. Ill use PageSeed Insights Desktop score for the purposes of this test.Once I have those numbers, Ill optimize both test sites to improve their PageSpeed Insights scores by:Installing W3 Total Cache (only on Arvixe, not Kinsta)Installing Autoptimize for better minificationOptimizing the imageMy goal is to get at least a 90+ PageSpeed Insights score.Once I achieve that goal, Ill run both sites through PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom again. And then, Ill show you all of the data!**NOTE** Kinsta has built-in caching. So when I first run the Kinsta site through PageSpeed Insights, it will naturally have a better first score than Arvixe. Therefore, its most illustrative to compare the optimized versions of each site against one another.Test results PageSpeed Insights vs. moving to faster hostingAfter running the tests and crunching the numbers, here are the results I came up with.Arvixe Test 1 Unoptimized PageSpeed Insights score:My unoptimized Arvixe test s ite had a mediocre PageSpeed Insights score of 66/100:Pingdoms calculated page load time was better than I expected, clocking in at 1.95 seconds. Thats actually not horrible. But remember that Im testing on a dummy site without much content:Kinsta Test 1 Unoptimized PageSpeed Insights score:With the exact same settings as Arvixe test #1, my Kinsta test site had a much-improved PageSpeed Insights score of 80. As I mentioned in the disclaimer above, this is because Kinsta has server-side caching:As I expected, Kinsta also had a superior page load time of just 610 ms:Arvixe Test 2 Optimized PageSpeed Insights score:After making the tweaks I mentioned above, I got the PageSpeed Insights score for my Arvixe test site up to 90/100. A major improvement from 66 and worthy of the coveted green seal of approval:So what was the effect on actual page load times? A marked improvement to 947 ms. Which illustrates my pointas significant as that improvement is, its still slower than the unoptimiz ed test site on Kinsta:Kinsta Test 2 Optimized PageSpeed Insights score:After making the same tweaks on Kinsta to optimize images and minify code, I managed to get its PageSpeed Insights score up to 91/100, almost identical to my Arvixe test site. The only difference is that Google dinged the Arvixe test site 1 point for Reduce server response time:Pingdom results werent much different. There was a slight improvement to 574 ms, but nothing mind-blowing:You can view a summary of the results below. Remember these are identical test sites. Literally, the only difference is that I used W3 Total Cache for my Arvixe test site, while Kinsta already included built-in caching.PageSpeed Insights Score vs Good HostHost / Test #PageSpeed Insights ScorePingdom Page Load TimeArvixe Test 1661.95 sKinsta Test 180610 msArvixe Test 290947 msKinsta Test 291574 msWrapping things upI dont want you to come away from this post thinking that you should ignore Google PageSpeed Insights. The people at Goog le are way smarter than I am. They know what theyre doing.All Im saying is thisFocus most on whats actually important absolute page load times. PageSpeed Insights is not the end of your optimization journey. Nor should it always be your primary focus.When it comes to absolute page load times (the important thing!), switching to a faster host and implementing good caching will have a much larger effect than trying to go from 66 to a 90 PageSpeed Insights score on sub-par hosting.By all means, implement PageSpeed Insights suggestions. Just dont obsess over them.What do you think? Are you struggling to make your WordPress site load fast?

An Empirical Investigation of Competency Factors Affecting E-Business Success in European Smes Essays

An Empirical Investigation of Competency Factors Affecting E-Business Success in European Smes Essays An Empirical Investigation of Competency Factors Affecting E-Business Success in European Smes Essay An Empirical Investigation of Competency Factors Affecting E-Business Success in European Smes Essay An empirical investigation of competency factors affecting e-business success in European SMEs Tom R. Eikebrokk, Dag H. Olsen * Department of Information Systems, Agder University College, Serviceboks 422, N-4604 Kristiansand, Norway Received 8 June 2005; received in revised form 5 February 2007; accepted 17 February 2007 Available online 5 June 2007 Abstract In the last decade there was growing interest in strategic management literature about factors that influence a company’s ability to use IT. There is general consensus that knowledge and competency are necessary in developing an IT capability, but there is very little understanding of what the necessary competencies are, and how they influence IS usage in different contexts. The small and medium-sized enterprise context is particularly interesting for two reasons: it constitutes a major part of the economy and it has been relatively unsuccessful in exploiting e-business. We explored the relationship between e-business competency and its success in European SMEs. A literature review was used to determine factors representing e-business competency, and develop hypotheses, which were tested using data collected from 339 SMEs in Europe. Our results provide evidence on the importance of certain e-business competencies on e-business success, and have implications for both research and practice in the field of SMEs. # 2007 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. Keywords: E-business competency; SMEs; E-business success; E-business strategy; IT-business process integration 1. Introduction Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are a major part of the industrial economies. Their survival and growth has therefore been a prominent issue, and considerable research has been initiated to determine e-business diffusion in SMEs. It has been assumed that success of e-business in the SME segment will increase a country’s competitiveness, and that successful adoption and use of e-business technology are crucial for survival [12]. However, several studies have indicated that SMEs are sometimes unable to adopt and use e-business technology successfully. A number of studies have emphasized lack of e-business competency (see, e. g. [28,34]) as the major cause of this. Such competency is viewed as important not only for understanding the implications of e-business but also for developing the capabilities needed to perform well [23]. However, we have found no published systematic empirical work that identifies critical competencies for the successful adoption and use of e-business in SMEs. A number of researchers have emphasized the role of competencies for achieving and sustaining competitive advantage (see, e. g. [46]. The majority of these contributions have taken a resource-based perspective of the firm. Understanding and leveraging resources and ompetencies in the organization are essential for effective strategic management [17]. E-business usually implies a rethinking of business models, the network, and system infrastructure. Therefore, only businesses with access to significant e-business competency can expect to succeed with their efforts [10]. www. elsevier. com/locate/im Information Management 44 (2007) 364–383 * Corresponding au thor. Tel. : +47 38 14 17 06; fax: +47 38 14 10 29. E-mail address: Dag. H. [emailprotected] no (D. H. Olsen). 0378-7206/$ – see front matter # 2007 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. im. 2007. 02. 004