Intention to use e-government services among the academic staff in Saudi universities

E-government diffusion and usage is a global topic that concerns many countries worldwide. E-government is a way for providing services of government over online channels of communication to its citizens. Saudi Arabia has implemented a program of e-government in 2005 to encourage performance of public sectors through acquiring the benefits of Information Communication Technology (ICT) advances. This study focuses on the factors that influence intention to use e-government among the academic staff in Saudi Arabia. In addition, this study is to identify the mediating role of e-government awareness on the relationships between social influence, trust of internet and trust in intermediaries and intention to use e-government and the mediating role of perceived risk on the relationships between trust of internet and trust in intermediaries and intention to use e-government. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), this study integrated these factors to examine their influences on intention to use e-government. This study utilized a quantitative approach using a survey to reflect consumers’ perspectives towards e-government usage. To examine the hypothesized model, the data were collected from the academic staff working in Saudi public universities. This study employed Partial Least Squares techniques to confirm the validity and reliability of the measurement model and to examine the structural relationships. The findings of the study confirmed the influences of social influence, e-government awareness, trust in intermediary and perceived risk on intention to use e-government. Further, awareness of e-government is influenced by social influence, trust in Internet and trust in intermediary and mediates the relationship between these factors and intention to use e-government. Trust in Internet factor emerged as significant predictor of consumers’ risk perceptions and mediates the relationship between this factor and intention to use e-government. This study has important implications for e-government practitioners, researchers and policy decision makers interested in the implementation of e-governmen

Providing Sharia-Compliant Consumer Protection in Online Contracts: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia

The emergence of modern technology and online selling in the early 1990s led to a significant shift in business practices, as sellers and buyers no longer needed to follow the traditional contracting process. Indeed, the facilitation of online contracts, sales and purchases over the Internet, such as business-to-consumer contracts (B2C), is one of the most significant technological developments of the Internet age. Despite the benefits of online shopping and its increasing popularity among consumers in recent years, online retailing is not without its problems, and the negative consequences can be severe. Consumers are affected by several factors when they purchase a product or service online. In short, compared to offline shopping, greater risk and less trust are expected in an online environment. This has led some global organisations to address the need for supranational consumer protection and alleviate risks to online consumers worldwide. However, such initiatives may not have the desired impact on developing countries, as long as these guidelines are not adopted in their national legislation. The first objective of this study is to investigate the laws regulating online consumer protection in the KSA and to assess whether they have achieved their purposes. A secondary objective is to determine whether or not there is the need for further reform in the legislation of online consumer protection, and if such reform is indicated, how it might be achieved in a way that reflects the needs of a state in the modern world, yet remains consistent with Islamic law. To that aim, the thesis will consider adopting Sharia law's features and take the English consumer protection model as an inspiration to suit the Saudi legal environment to regulate online transactions. Therefore, the best practices and legal principles that come to light from this analysis will then be outlined to fulfil this research's main aim, identifying opportunities for the improvement of consumer protection in Saudi Arabia

The Impact of E-commerce on the Development of Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

This paper is based on a Ph.D. study investigating the critical challenges facing e-commerce adoption by entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, identifying the major driving factors, barriers, motivations, perceived advantages, potential problems and some practical solutions as well as future expectations from entrepreneurs’ perspectives. From the study findings, a set of practical recommendations were derived for the government, entrepreneurs and investors in Saudi Arabia to consider, to promote ecommerce entrepreneurship in the county. The research was undertaken using a qualitative approach. Data collection techniques involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews, with (1) e-commerce entrepreneurs, and (2) government authorities, educational initiatives and private support institutions. Data collected was thematically analyzed. The findings led to the identification of five significant factors that were found to influence e-commerce related entrepreneurial activities in Saudi Arabia, leading to both “necessity entrepreneurship” and “opportunity entrepreneurship”: 1) government and institutional funding and financing, 2) government and institutional education and training, 3) government policies and legislation, 4) infrastructure and 5) gender and the cultural environment

Competitiveness and internationalization of a Portuguese SME in the cheese market - marketing mix and budget

S4, an experienced Portuguese cheese company leader in the domestic fresh segment, aims to expand and consolidate its business internationally. By screening several countries based on macro and industry-specific indicators and conducting an in-depth analysis of the four most promising ones, United States and Germany resulted to be the most attractive markets for S4’s internationalization. Following, the most suitable entry mode was defined as well as the ideal business model and marketing plan to effectively run a business in both countries. Financial projections and risk evaluations were performed to assess the viability of the proposed international plan

The development of social commerce intention model SNS among University students

The tendency toward using commerce transactions through social media platforms among Saudi youth made deep investigation of this phenomenon a necessity for many social media users, retailors and decision makers. Understanding the variables that contribute in increasing social media users’ intentions towards social commerce became crucial in this promising innovative market in Saudi context. Nevertheless, due to the lack of studies that clarify the mediating roles of trust, attitude, and satisfaction on the relationships between the Saudis’ social commerce intention and information support, emotional support, and perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived security, and perceived privacy; the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behaviour and Technology Acceptance Model were used in the present study to develop a conceptual model with 25 hypotheses purposely to investigate these relationships. The study adopted a quantitative approach Data were collected through questionnaires from 538 students studying in five Saudi universities, SPSS version 23 was used in analysing the data and SEM-PLS technique was utilised to test the postulated hypotheses. Out of 25 hypotheses, the results showed that informational support, perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness have insignificant impact or indirect relationship to trust, while emotional support, perceived security and privacy significantly impact the trust. In addition, trust has a significant effect on attitude and satisfaction. Satisfaction has a significant impact on attitude and social commerce intention and finally, attitude significantly influences social commerce intention. Consequently, the model proved a direct influence of emotional support, perceived security, and perceived privacy on trust which influence directly the satisfaction and attitude; both of these moderating variables have a positive impact on the social commerce intention. This study overture important insights to the social commerce retailers to build campaign strategies based on university students’ perceptions toward social commerce to maximize their intention and engagement in it

Exploring factors impacting e-commerce adoption in tourism industry in Saudi Arabia

With the internet revolutionising global tourism, technological changes continue to make inroads into the industry’s marketing and sales management models. Although many tourists still use shopfront providers, they are increasingly becoming a minority as the ‘mobile generation’ goes online for information and uses social media to discuss their holiday plans and book travel services. In Saudi Arabia, the religious tourism industry serving Hajj and Umrah pilgrims as well as other tourism clusters have been slow in coming to terms with e-commerce trends, preferring to offer a traditional personalised service to their clients. However, the logistical needs of servicing the rapidly increasing numbers of international pilgrims and growing IT literacy in the local market means that tourism management in Saudi Arabia needs to make considerable investments in time, resources and training to harness information technology and adopt business models that are at par with their global competitors. To respond to this issue, this study explores the perceptions and experiences of executives in the Hajj/Umrah as well as other tourism industry sectors to understand the factors that may have fostered or impeded e-commerce adoption. This research contributes to the existing research on e-commerce adoption in Saudi Arabia by providing an explanation of the factors that influence the adoption of e-commerce by the tourism industry and explaining how generic theories of technology adoption need to be contextualised for the specific conditions prevailing in the Arab tourism market. The practical contribution on this research relates to the solutions it offers for the challenges faced by the travel and tourism industry in e-commerce adoption in Saudi Arabia. The research was conducted using interviews with Saudi tourism executives to understand the contextual factors that influence the norms and attitudes prevailing in the tourism business that affect their adoption of e-commerce. This was followed by a questionnaire which was sent to a larger sample in Saudi cities, mainly focussing on Jeddah. The questionnaire focused on uncovering the factors influencing the adoption, or lack thereof, of e-commerce in the Saudi tourism industry. The research was grounded on a theoretical framework derived from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Perceived Organisational and External E-Readiness scales, and Organisational Cultural Dimensions. The findings confirmed that the perceived relative advantage of e-commerce utilisation was an essential contributor to promote e-commerce in Saudi Arabia. Although government policy and industry norms were shown to influence e-commerce adoption, executives’ attitudes were found to strongly affect technology adoption and were shown to be indirectly modified by their ICT literacy and customer influence. Internal human and ICT resources also had a direct impact on the decision to adopt e-commerce. On the other hand, customers’ attitude relating to issues regarding online privacy and security and a lack of human interaction in a market with a preference for personalised agent service for customers form significant barriers to their adoption of e-commerce. There is also a lack of industry leadership and a supportive Saudi-based IT industry that can facilitate this move toward modernisation in industry standards. While there is a broad understanding of the importance of e-commerce, the tourism providers view an e-commerce strategy as not yet necessary, or indeed not yet relevant, for the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia at this time