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

Determinant Factors of E-commerce Adoption by SMEs in Developing Country: Evidence from Indonesia

The aim of this study is to investigate those factors that influence SMEs in developing countries in adopting e-commerce. This study is motivated by the fact that the adoption of e-commerce by SMEs, especially in developing countries, is still very far behind the adoption by large companies. Yet to be able to survive in the new economic era, which is the information era; businesses, including SMEs, are forced to adopt e-commerce. Non-adopters will be left behind by the adopters. In addition, studies regarding e-commerce adoption by SMEs are rarely found. Therefore, the results of this study provide a timely understanding of e-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries. The model developed in this study is based on the TOE framework. Eleven variables are proposed as the factors that influence SMEs in adopting of e-commerce. These are organized into four groups, namely: technological factors, organizational factors, environmental factors and individual factors. Based on a survey of 292 Indonesian SMEs, it was found that perceived benefits, technology readiness, owners’ innovativeness, owners’ IT ability and owners’ IT experience are the determinant factors that influence Indonesian SMEs in their adopting e-commerce

Antecedents of business-to-business e-commerce adoption and its effect on competitive advantage in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises: A comparative study of United States of America and Egypt

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce adoption has become a necessity for most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), allowing them to gain and sustain competitive advantage in a dynamic competitive environment. Accepting the fact that B2B is adopted at different levels based on different resources leads to the acceptance that competitive advantage is gained and sustained on a level consistent with the level of adoption. This study employs quantitative method based on the positivism philosophy and deductive approach. A questionnaire survey technique was used to collect the data from the American and Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. Moreover, it used structural equation modelling with a sample of 320 and 260 manufacturing SMEs in the United States of America and Egypt respectively. The structural equation modelling (SEM) findings revealed that each level of B2B e-commerce adoption was affected by different factors from another level of adoption. Besides, there was a significant difference between the issues which faced manufacturing SMEs in USA and Egypt. Furthermore, in Egyptian manufacturing SMEs, relative advantage and competitive pressure have a significant effect on adoption behaviour. On the other hand, when American manufacturing SMEs made their decisions to adopt B2B e-commerce, they considered the main factors to be relative advantage, top management support, firm size and government support. In addition, the findings revealed that the higher the level of B2B e-commerce, which an SME adopted, the higher the level of competitive advantage it gained. However, in developing countries such as Egypt, SMEs remained far behind their peers in developed countries. In terms of theoretical implications, the study could be considered to be a unique study in the field of B2B e-commerce generally and B2B e-commerce in Egyptian manufacturing SMEs in particular. This is because, by looking back at the literature review, is clear that empirical studies into B2B e-commerce issues, including manufacturing SMEs, remained embryonic in developed countries and rare in the developing countries. This is especially so in the Arabic countries. In addition, most previous studies focused on a broad and generic view of the SMEs’ adoption of B2B e-commerce or on the relationship between adoption of IT and competitive advantage. This study was conducted in a cross-country context; it considered the manufacturing SMEs’ adoption of B2B e-commerce from the perspective of the level of adoption. Therefore, it made an original empirical contribution towards the current body of knowledge on the adoption of B2B e-commerce through the identification of manufacturing SMEs adoption levels of B2B e-commerce; their impacts on competitive advantage; and the significant factors which influenced each adoption level of B2B e-commerce in USA and Egypt. In addition, this study used TOE as the theoretical framework in investigating the factors affecting B2B e-commerce in SMEs and focused largely on the factors affecting each level; this is a new contribution to the extant literature. Turning to the study’s practical implications, important implications for the manufacturing SMEs’ owner/managers can be drawn from the findings to help them to understand their environments as, in a cross-country business context, they move through the different stages of adopting B2B e-commerce. In addition to the implication for manufacturing SMEs’ owners/managers, this study presents important implications for governmental, nongovernmental organisations and other institutions linked to manufacturing SMEs. Similar to other studies, this study has a number of limitations. The main one is that it lacks the use of qualitative analysis to depict how SMEs understand the concept of competitive advantages and how this helps them to survive and grow.Iraqi governmen

Building consumers’ confidence in adopting e-commerce: A Malaysian case

Consumers’ confidence on the online transactions is vital for the continuous growth and development of electronic commerce. In the present study, we experimentally investigate the measures of consumers’ perceived security and privacy over online transactions as well as the perceived trust and reliability of online vendors in order to influence consumers’ overall confidence in e-commerce transactions. On the basis of responses from 163 participants, it is concluded that the major concerns in e-commerce adoption are: security and privacy over online transaction process and trust and reliability of online vendors. In order to be successful in electronic marketplace, the organisations are expected to expend their resources and exert efforts to ensure that consumers’ concerns are adequately addressed.e-commerce; security and privacy; trust; online vendors; consumer behaviour; Malaysia

Predicting intention to adopt B2B electronic commerce in Jordan: The moderating role of trust and dependency

Business to Business Electronic Commerce (B2B EC) has great potentials to extend firms’ competency and efficiency. As such, Jordan has an objective to increase the diffusion of this technology. Despite extensive government efforts, the adoption of B2B EC is still limited. Consequently, there have been extensive efforts to better understand the phenomena. Yet, documented findings regarding the determinants of the adoption are not altogether consistent. To provide more insight, this study developed a research model utilizing the Technological, Organizational, and Environmental (TOE) framework to identify the determinants of the firms’ propensity to adopt B2B EC. Since B2B EC is an inter-organizational phenomenon supporting transactions of partnerships, this study emphasizes the context of partnership characteristics. Grounded on inter-organizational theories, this study hypothesized that partnership characteristics, namely trust and dependency, moderate the role of TOE motivating factors. Moreover, given that B2B EC is used on both sides of the buyer/seller relationship, this study examined the differences and similarities in the perception of the marketing and purchasing departments regarding the determinants of the B2B EC adoption. A total of 798 questionnaires were self administrated to marketing and purchasing managers in 462 firms that have large registered capital in Jordan. In total, 114 marketing and 125 purchasing managers participated in this study. Marketing and purchasing responses were analyzed separately using the Partial Least Squares approach. The result revealed that the marketing and purchasing departments do have different views regarding the determinants of the adoption, specifically in terms of the role of Relative Advantage and Competition Pressure. Moreover, the results showed that the moderating role of trust was less pronounced. Meanwhile, the moderating role of dependency was partially supported particularly in the purchasing perspective. These findings have demonstrated how dependence asymmetries between trading partners may change the adoption motivations. They further explain the importance of considering the views of the business partner for the adoption to be done successfully

The Adoption of B2B e-Commerce Initiatives by The Indonesian Grocery Industry

Electronic Commerce is concerned with conducting business transactions electronically using information and communication technologies. In this globalization era, many organisations in various countries have rapidly adopted e-Commerce to enable efficient trading with other organisations located in various parts of the world. However, e-Commerce adoption is still unilaterally concentrated in developed countries which are attributable to some issues related to the relevance of e-Commerce for organisations in developing countries. Currently, there are limited detailed studies into the adoption of e-Commerce technologies in developing countries. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a multiple case study over an extended period of time, exploring the adoption of e-Commerce technologies that support business-to-business interactions within the supply chain of the grocery industry in Indonesia, as an example of a developing country. Valuable insights have been obtained regarding the adoption of e-Commerce technologies by the participating organisations in Indonesia to better manage their supply chain. This study offers important implications to both academics and practitioners in the field of technology adoption

The impact of internal organization factors on the adoption of e-commerce and its effect on organizational performance among Palestinian small and medium enterprise

Electronic Commerce (EC) can without a doubt help firms reduce cost, enhance efficiency, and expand their market reach.However, small and medium sized enterprises in Palestine are slow in adopting EC.As a result, it became important to analyse the situation and determine the factors affecting the implementation process.Numerous firms encounter hurdles during the EC dispersion process, thus, failing to gain any benefits from EC adoption.The paper aims to determine the technological, organizational, and information culture factors that have an impact on EC adoption process, and how EC adoption in turn affects the organization’s performance.A quantitative research technique using the survey method will be used in this research.The technology-organization-environment-framework known as TOE framework is the base upon which the paper proposed an integrated model to study the effects of factors from the technological, organizational, and informational culture points of view during the EC process adoption. Information culture factors have gained more focus; as they have hardly been examined by previous literature regarding their influence on EC adoption.For the specific objective of this study, Palestine has been chosen to examine how information culture factors influence EC adoption during the diffusion process, not only providing practical guidelines for enterprises engaging in EC adoption, but also providing academics an insight on the EC adoption process perspective, particularly during diffusion of EC

Some Market Effects of E-Commerce.

An important characteristic of E-commerce is that it is a form of technological change. The effects of E-commerce induced reductions in business production costs and on seller to buyer transaction costs are assessed. Comparative static models for different market structures are used to assess the effects of E-commerce on prices, quantities, aggregate efficiency gains, and the distribution of benefits and costs. Ultimately consumers are the principle beneficiaries via lower prices. Competitive forces and profit incentives induce firms to adopt cost reducing E-commerce technology.TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ; EFFICIENCY ; COSTS ; PRODUCTION

Towards a B2B E-Commerce Evaluation Management Model to Assess Organizational Drivers in Hospitals

Effective utilization of business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce (e-commerce) in hospitals may lead to many benefits such as increased accessibility to healthcare providers, improved process efficiency, enhanced quality of healthcare services, increased responses to changes, decreased scheduling conflicts, and reduction in administrative costs. However, many hospitals have found that they have not yet fully reaped the expected benefits from their B2B e-commerce investments. Despite this, there has not been much discussion in the literature with respect to the relationship between the organizational drivers on B2B e-commerce benefits for hospitals. Hence, a mixed-method of case study and survey was conducted to examine the relationships between B2B e-commerce benefits, IT evaluation resources allocation, IT investment evaluation methodologies, IT maturity, and user information requirements determination process. A B2B e-commerce evaluation management model was developed to test these relationships. The results provided empirical evidence in support of our proposed model and revealed that hospitals’ IT evaluation resources allocation practices mediated the relationship of IT investment evaluation methodologies, IT maturity, and user information requirements determination process with B2B e-commerce benefits. The results also showed that the level of IT maturity had a significant impact on the adoption of IT investment evaluation methodologies

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