Assessment of customers’ knowledge and attitudes towards e-commerce in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality

In numerous developed markets, E-commerce is generally utilised and considered an effective method of reaching global players, gaining market share and building extended relationships between customers and businesses and between businesses. Yet, in South Africa- a developing country, the E-commerce market remains fairly underutilized and is primarily focused on the non-food market and targeting high-end customers. Current estimates are that 37% (13 - 15million) of South Africans have online access, and while this is considered to offer great potential for E-commerce to flourish, it has not been the case in South Africa. The aim of this study was to assess customer knowledge and attitude towards E-commerce through a framework in the context of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). To answer the research question and accomplish the aim, the study explored and described how customers’ knowledge and attitudes towards E-commerce manifest themselves. Theories surmised in making assumptions and explaining the behaviour of customers towards E-commerce to potentially enhance an understanding on underlying factors that influence the knowledge and attitudes of customers towards E-commerce were used as a lens to develop a priori research conceptual framework that was employed to guide data collection and analysis. The underpinning theories are Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. The conceptual research framework for this study had three fundamental blocks: customer characteristics, knowledge and persuasion. Putting together these three main aspects, the thesis was able to figure out the perceived usefulness and attitude of people to E-commerce in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, and to provide recommendations on how to improve E commerce in BCMM. This qualitative study adopted the relativist and constructionist perspective as an ontological assumption. From the onset, the study claimed that online platforms for E-commerce exist in reality and that most people in South Africa have access to internet and that many own smartphones, but their knowledge and attitude towards E-commerce is not well understood. Thus this study explored the participant’s iv knowledge and attitude towards E-commerce as a reality that is socially constructed in their contextual background, and this was the epistemological stance of the study. An interpretive approach was followed in collecting and analysing the data. The data were obtained through face-to-face interviews with 12 middle class adult participants whom were purposively selected from different areas within BCMM. In terms of gender, participants comprised of eight females and four males. Observations were also conducted to obtain the data that could not be obtained through the interviews. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis approach. The research revealed that BCMM customers are knowledgeable about and have a positive attitude towards E-commerce, yet most do not engage in online shopping. There was also suggesting evidence that low levels of acceptance among customers in BCMM is caused by nervousness to engage in online shopping, and the levels of discomfort in relation to usage, varied between males and females. Females were found to be shopping online more than males. Findings suggest that some customers have trust issues with E-commerce and perceive online shopping as risky, with a number of them expressing security fears related to potential misuse of their personal information on websites of E-Commerce shops. It also transpired that a majority of them do not have an understanding of what constitutes a secured website. Despite the low level of utility of the E-commerce, it is concluded that customers in BCMM are knowledgeable and have positive attitude towards E-Commerce. However, to increase usage of online E-commerce in BCMM, education on how E-commerce works needs to be prioritised. Furthermore, it is recommended that E-commerce shops need to devise genuine strategies of allaying customers’ fears about E-commerce in order to improve their trust. This would likely increase the utility of E-commerce by customers in BCMM.Graduate School of Business LeadershipM.B.L

The effect of institutional trust on internet banking acceptance: Perspectives of South African banking retail customers

Transactions carried out in the uncertain and impersonal conditions of the Internet require substantial levels of trust. Obtaining customers’ trust is therefore imperative to cultivating and nurturing long-lasting and profitable customer-firm relationships in online environments. Surprisingly however, there is currently a dearth of research on the effects of trust on customers’ acceptance of e-commerce in Africa. This paper investigates the effects of the components of institutional trust on perceptions of ease of use and usefulness, as well as attitudes towards use on customers’ intentions to use Internet banking services. An integrated research model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was built and empirically tested using data obtained from 390 retail banking customers in South Africa. The results show that the proposed model possesses high explanatory capabilities as it could explain 61 per cent of the variance in Internet banking use intentions. The study results further show that situational normality is neither a salient determinant of customers’ attitudes towards use of internet banking nor their use intention, whereas structural assurance is. By examining the effects of institutional trust on the TAM’s variables, especially in a developing African country, this study does not only provide insights for managers in their efforts to achieve rapid adoption of Internet banking, but also contributes to the literature on the topic

Emergent Global Information Infrastructure/Global Information Society: Regime Formation and the Impact on Africa

This paper combines a theoretical perspective on globalization and the information society with a critical usage of international regime theory in order to contribute to a better understanding of the current historical period of transition from an international telecommunications regime to a new and complex regime aimed at providing governance for the global information infrastructure and global information society. The paper employs a case-study approach to explore some of the specific national responses (i.e. South Africa) to this regime transition, with an analysis of potential best practices and lessons learned for other emerging economies.public finance, macroeconomic policy, policy design, international economic order, economic integration

Competing in the Digital Economy?: The Dynamics and Impacts of B2B E-commerce on the South African Manufacturing Sector

ICTs, B2B e-commerce, manufacturing sector, South Africa

Nigerian scam e-mails and the charms of capital

So-called '419' or 'advance-fee' e-mail frauds have proved remarkably successful. Global losses to these scams are believed to run to billions of dollars. Although it can be assumed that the promise of personal gain which these e-mails hold out is part of what motivates victims, there is more than greed at issue here. How is it that the seemingly incredible offers given in these unsolicited messages can find an audience willing to treat them as credible? The essay offers a speculative thesis in answer to this question. Firstly, it is argued, these scams are adept at exploiting common presuppositions in British and American culture regarding Africa and the relationships that are assumed to exist between their nations and those in the global south. Secondly, part of the appeal of these e-mails lies in the fact that they appear to reveal the processes by which wealth is created and distributed in the global economy. They thus speak to their readers’ attempts to map or conceptualise the otherwise inscrutable processes of that economy. In the conclusion the essay looks at the contradictions in the official state response to this phenomena

The impact of mobile telephony on developing country micro-enterprises: a Nigerian case study

Informational challenges-absence, uncertainty, asymmetry-shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. For developing country micro-enterprises, which form the bulk of all enterprises worldwide, these challenges shape the characteristics of their supply chains. They reduce the chances that business and trade will emerge. They keep supply chains localised and intermediated. They make trade within those supply chains slow, costly, and risky. Mobile telephony may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges and, hence, to alter the characteristics of trade within micro-enterprise supply chains. However, mobile telephony has only recently penetrated. This paper, therefore, presents one of the first case studies of the impact of mobile telephony on the numerically-dominant form of enterprise, based around a case study of the cloth-weaving sector in Nigeria. It finds that there are ways in which costs and risks are being reduced and time is saved, often by substitution of journeys. But it also finds a continuing need for journeys and physical meetings due to issues of trust, design intensity, physical inspection and exchange, and interaction complexity. As a result, there are few signs of the de-localisation or disintermediation predicted by some commentators. An economising effect of mobile phones on supply chain processes may therefore co-exist with the entrenchment of supply chain structures and a growing 'competitive divide' between those with and without access to telephony

Seizing the 'Internet Plus' moment in Africa

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292762551_Seizing_the_%27Internet_Plus%27_moment_in_AfricaPublished versionPublished versio

Profiling a decade of information systems frontiers’ research

This article analyses the first ten years of research published in the Information Systems Frontiers (ISF) from 1999 to 2008. The analysis of the published material includes examining variables such as most productive authors, citation analysis, universities associated with the most publications, geographic diversity, authors’ backgrounds and research methods. The keyword analysis suggests that ISF research has evolved from establishing concepts and domain of information systems (IS), technology and management to contemporary issues such as outsourcing, web services and security. The analysis presented in this paper has identified intellectually significant studies that have contributed to the development and accumulation of intellectual wealth of ISF. The analysis has also identified authors published in other journals whose work largely shaped and guided the researchers published in ISF. This research has implications for researchers, journal editors, and research institutions

Prospects for the Digital Economy in South Africa: Technology, Policy, People, and Strategies

E-commerce, South Africa, Information policy, Digital economy, Information infrastructure