E-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries: evidence from Indonesia

This study aims to provide an overview of e-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries and, in particular, the extent of the adoption of e-commerce by Indonesian SMEs. It identifies the e-commerce benefits realized by these SMEs and investigates the relationship between the levels of e-commerce adoption and the benefits thus realized. The study was motivated by the limited studies related to e-commerce adoption by SMEs, especially in developing countries. In addition, it seems that most e-commerce studies are focused more on upstream issues: to see the factors that facilitate, or barriers faced regarding e-commerce adoption, rather than downstream issues: to see post-adoption benefits. This certainly limits our understanding about e-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries, as well as the post-adoption benefits of e-commerce. Indonesia was chosen as the place in which to conduct the study. A survey of 292 SMEs shows that the majority of them are still at an early stage in their adoption of e-commerce. Their use of e-commerce is dominated by marketing and purchasing and procurement activities. “Extending market reach”, “increased sales”, “improved external communication”, “improved company image”, “improved speed of processing”, and “increased employee productivity” are reported as the top six e-commerce benefits perceived by these SMEs. This study also shows that SMEs at the higher level of e-commerce adoption experience greater e-commerce benefits than those at other levels of adoption

Small and medium entrepreneurs’ perspective on E-commerce in eastern province of Sri Lanka

Even though there is a rapid development of social commerce, developing countries are still confronted by infrastructural and cultural issues related to the acceptance of e-commerce. Since Sri Lanka is a developing country, the acceptance of e-commerce by the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is still in challenge by such barriers; it is now applying models for the acceptance of new technologies by SMEs. The paper aims to discuss these types of issues. This research study is endeavoring to develop a model, with the ideas of existing models on e-commerce, which will be applied with Sri Lankan conditions. The data collected by a survey is composed with prior models in e-commerce area to investigate this study, and it has been empirically tested to recommend an innovative model. The findings of this research reveal that poor awareness of the advantages of the e-commerce and organizational issues lined with its applications are the reasons for most of the e-commerce obstacles in Sri Lanka. The findings and suggestions of this study, can be applicable to other developing countries as well. This paper is giving a better representation of Sri Lankan market. Lastly the paper deliberates probable upcoming guidelines of this research, as well as its boundaries. This research supports to the hypothetical basis of information systems and e-commerce acceptance studies through recommending and testing a pre-acceptance model for e-commerce. The acceptance of e-commerce in SMEs in Sri Lanka has not been considerably inspected. It is obvious that the SMEs in Sri Lanka play a significant role in its economies. The findings of this study demonstrate a substantial affiliation between organizational readiness and the acceptance of e-commerce and validate the positive relationship between readiness of e-commerce and its acceptance

An Investigation of the Factors Affecting Consumers’ Adoption of E-commerce: An Empirical Study of Saudi Arabia

This study identified a gap in the adoption of electronic (e)-commerce in Saudi Arabia in particular and developing countries in general and hopefully, provides some useful insight regarding e-commerce in Saudi Arabia. This study is limited to a small nation or group which makes generalization not essential (Bryman 2008,p.391). But at the same time, it provides a good base for further work that can be based on the findings of this study. Businesses across the world are launching e-commerce to increase sales by reducing costs, and extending their activities to serve their clients anywhere in the world. The literature, however, shows that in many developing countries e-commerce projects have failed due to a lack of consumers' readiness to adopt it whereas consumers in the developed countries have already incorporated e-commerce into their daily lives. In order for e-commerce to be successful in developing countries, consumers need to accept and adopt this service. This gap is addressed by this study so that developing countries come to benefit from e-commerce and avoid possible failures. The study presents the key factors (enablers and barriers) that affect consumers’ adoption of e-commerce. It aims to understand consumers’ perspectives, move theoretically to obtain suppliers’ comments on consumers’ viewpoints, gather any new aspects mentioned by them and finally to combine the two perspectives together to arrive at the final findings. The researcher investigated a number of research methodologies to find the one appropriate for this study. As a result, a qualitative research approach was adopted, which was used to understand and explain the phenomenon under investigation. Grounded theory methodology (GT) was used since it uses theoretical sampling that helped to achieve the study’s goals by moving theoretically from the first empirical study to the second. The study used various techniques to collect evidence such as semi-structure interviews, observations and official documents. The two empirical studies of this research offered a good understanding and further insights into e-commerce adoption among consumers. It reveals a roadmap for suppliers and governments that enable them to adopt e-commerce among consumers in developing countries. The findings of this study are divided into the following dimensions: cultural, telecommunication infrastructure, technical, suppliers’ responsibilities, financial, awareness, legal, delivery, tangible and intangible end-user characteristics, security, geographical and government’s responsibilities dimensions. Government’s responsibilities have been found to be the core category that affects most of the factors that are germane to this study. These factors can help decision makers understand the issues that are involved and effectively address them. The final paradigm model presented in chapter 8 illustrates the phenomenon, its causes, conditions, specifications and the required strategies that help to increase e-commerce adoption among consumers

Consumer protection on online transactions in Kurdistan: Lessons from Malaysian law

Recently, the increase in the usage of e-commerce has been one of the most significant developments of business sector. It has transformed many marketplaces to start new opportunities have never been imagined before. Kurdistan is considered as one of the very few regions in the world that are still so far from the real use of inevitable services of e-commerce. Primarily, Kurdistan suffers various features that run as barriers to an effective use of e-commerce, such as inadequate laws to protect consumers electronically, lack of awareness and understanding the benefits of electronic commerce, lack of information and communication technologies (ICT) knowledge and skills, unstable physical network infrastructure, security and other problems related to costs for the adoption of a new technology. This study aims to identify potential issues and problems facing e-commerce in Kurdistan. For this purpose, the study has conducted a comparison between both Malaysian and Kurdish contexts in terms of consumer protection law on online transactions. This study also indicates the intention of Kurdish government to apply Malaysian context into its national laws in terms of e-transactions. As a part of data collection, this study has conducted two versions of formal and informal interviews involved three sets of questions asked each group of selected panelists from governmental and nongovernmental organizations in Kurdistan. The given discussions by this study focused on the technological and law issues that could drive e-commerce in this region. Suggestions were given for better improvement of Kurdish internet laws to provide safe electronic environment and to bring Kurdistan amongst other developing countries to become an active member in the digital economy

WTO and e-commerce diffusion in developing countries : the case of China's coastal urban area

The increasing use of Internet and the potential of e-commerce give rise to important policy issues relating to both national economic policy and multilateral rules of international trade. Motivated by the argument that the liberalization commitments made at the World Trade Organization (WTO) may have a major impact on the e-commerce development, this research aims to investigate the relationship between WTO commitments and e-commerce diffusion in developing countries by using China’s coastal urban area as a case study. Taking critical realism as the underlying philosophy, the research develops two process models to answer the research questions. The model at the lower level focuses on the single process of how the WTO commitments can affect an individual infrastructural sector related to e-commerce. It was developed by analyzing the four most important e-commerce input sectors: telecommunications, banking, logistics and express delivery, and information technology (IT). The model at the higher level is a network combining the processes at the lower level, examining the overall effects of WTO commitments on e-commerce diffusion. Nine propositions were made from the higher-level model. Conclusions are drawn from outcomes in verifying these propositions. The WTO commitments are found to have indirect effects on liberalization in telecommunications, banking, and logistics and express delivery services. Improvements in these sectors have made information infrastructure and commercial services less important barriers to e-commerce than other issues. In addition, the WTO commitments have directly boosted Chinese enterprises’ interest in e-commerce adoption and positively affected the taxation policy on e-commerce. All these have positively influenced e-commerce diffusion in China, while the effects of the WTO commitments on IT product imports, computer and related services, intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection, and educational services have not been evident. This research is the first study to use a specific case to examine the WTO rules in the context of e-commerce diffusion. It has implications for both research and practice. First, by examining the interactions between the external pressure from multilateral agreements and internal forces of domestic institutions, the research investigates the actual process of how the impacts of the WTO rules can be materialized. Second, the thesis confirms the argument that while the socio-economic challenges to e-commerce are difficult to surmount, the path to reducing regulatory barriers is clearer and the benefits quicker to observe. Government action is critical to removing these impediments to electronic commerce

Research on the Application of E-commerce to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): the Case of India

SMEs account for a large proportion and play an important role in the development of each country in the world, including India. The globalization will bring many advantages for enterprises however SMEs will face fierce competition at the local, national and International level. In order to maintain and promote the important role of SMEs in the context of increased competition, SMEs have to change and adopt new technologies. E-commerce and digital technologies are bringing opportunities to help SMEs improve their competitiveness, narrow the gap with big enterprises thanks to their fairness and flexibility of the digital business environment.       According to UNIDO (2017), India is one of the countries successfully applying e-commerce to SMEs. Contributing to this success is the important role of the Indian government. Therefore, this paper focuses on researching the application of e-commerce to SMEs in terms of the role of government in promoting and creating an ecosystem for SMEs and e-commerce development

U.S. Trade in Services: Trends and Policy Issues

[Excerpt] This report provides background information and analysis on U.S. international trade in services. It analyzes policy issues before the United States, especially relating to negotiating international disciplines on trade in services and dealing complexities in measuring trade in services. The report also examines emerging issues and current and potential trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)