Adoption of Electronic Commerce by Organizations in India: Strategic and Environmental Imperatives

Abstract

In recent years many developing nations have been exposed to significant externa l changes such as economic deregulation and globalization. Evidence suggests that this has resulted in the adoption of EC by organizations in these countries. It is important to understand the strategic and environmental imperatives for EC adoption. Such u nderstanding is required for anticipating necessary changes in EC adoption, to keep in tune with the impending and emerging changes in the environment. It is also needed for formulating business strategies in alignment with the organization's IS strategies and IT capabilities, and for addressing managerial challenges in EC adoption. This paper is based on a study of EC adoption in eighteen companies from eleven industries in India. It is aimed at examining the different factors, related to strategic and environmental imperatives, which lead to the adoption of EC by organizations in developing countries. The results, based on interviews with close to a hundred people in these organizations indicate that there are broadly three conditions under which an organization adopts EC. These are related to the external environment, organizational performance and specific internal management compulsions. Each of these conditions describes a specific aspect of EC adoption and leads to imperatives for changes in processes and products. These imperatives in turn, result in the adoption of EC in different critical organizational processes. This study is one of the first detailed empirical studies on EC adoption in Indian organizations.

Perceived E-Readiness Factors in E-Commerce Adoption: An Empirical Investigation in a Developing Country

“…"Structural characteristics" related to institutional arrangements are not as well developed in developing countries as in the developed countries [46,64,68]. The competitive environment in a developing country is more often shaped by the relationship between business and the government than by market forces [46].…”

“…Severe organizational constraints on financial, technological, and human resources often cause businesses in developing countries to lag behind their counterparts in developed countries in using information technology, including e-commerce [34,54,64]. In addition, most businesses in developing countries have very limited experience of doing business electronically, dealing with noncash payments and working with electronically mediated intra-and interbusiness relationships [49,51].…”

“…These organizational factors contribute to the success of technology diffusion [60]. Developing countries frequently lack these resources and therefore face a serious challenge [51,64]. In addition, and in contrast to the adoption of stand-alone IT innovations (e.g., personal computers), the adoption of more complex and sophisticated IT in- novations like e-commerce that cut across interorganizational boundaries cannot be adequately understood without an in-depth analysis of the external environment.…”

E‐Commerce Enablers and Barriers in Tanzanian Small and Medium Enterprises

“…External pressures have been known to be major driving forces for E-Commerce adoption by organizations in developed nations (Tarafdar & Vaidya, 2004, Gray & Sanzogni, 2004. PEER represents an organization's assessment and evaluation of the relevant external environmental factors such as market forces, institutional readiness, and industrial support (Molla and Licker, 2005).…”

Mobilizing Culture for E‐Business in Developing Countries: An Actor Network Theory Account

“…In the developing country e-business literature, the importance of national culture to e-business adoption and diffusion is well recognized (Travica, 2002;Laosethakul and Boulton, 2007;Boateng et al, 2009;Hafez, 2006). More so, the relationship between ebusiness and culture in developing countries is increasingly attracting research attention (Tarafdar and Vaidya, 2004;Mbarika et al, 2005). As Leidner and Kayworth (2006) point out, culture is a critical factor regarding how people interact with information technology.…”