An analysis of the factors affecting the adoption of electronic commerce by SMEs

Abstract

Purpose -The study investigates the internet-based electronic commerce (EC) adoption profile of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey as well as the factors affecting their willingness to adopt EC usage. Design/methodology/approach -EC adoption is measured by a composite index of the usage frequency of 14 EC application tools. The study draws on the data obtained from a sample of 237 manufacturing SMEs with internet connection. Findings -In was discovered that EC adoption was significantly influenced by its perceived benefits. However, the perceived limitations of EC applications were found to have no statistically significant effect on EC adoption. The analysis also showed that company and industry-specific factors, with the exception of amount of resources allocated for export development, did not appear to have any significant impact on EC adoption. Research limitations/implications -More efforts have to be made to remove or at least mitigate the impediments to a SME's willingness to adopt EC. The results of this study show that the lack of legal regulations is cited as one of the most serious limitations of EC and hence EC is rarely used for payment purposes. One of the most vivid implications of internet-based EC for SMEs is the potential for external communication and information gathering for market and product research. Originality/value -This study is significant for two reasons. First, it presents new data and insights into the internet-based EC adoption of SMEs. Second, this study focuses on a relatively unexplored research area in an emerging market -Turkish SMEs.

The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs

“…Even the starting point of digitization, broadband access, has been shown to bring significant opportunities to SMEs such as reaching new target audiences, increasing performance and efficiency, and improving growth and competitiveness (Galloway, 2007;Shideler and Badasyan, 2012;Spurge and Roberts, 2005). In addition, internet use can benefit SMEs by reducing costs (Chong and Pervan, 2007;Kaynak et al, 2005;Lohrke et al, 2006) and facilitating both internal and external communication (Bharadwaj and Soni, 2007;Chong and Pervan, 2007;Eriksson, Hultman and Naldi, 2008;Kaynak et al, 2005). More recent developments in digitization, namely the social aspects of the web (e.g.…”

A stage-oriented model (SOM) for e-commerce adoption: a study of Saudi Arabian organisations

“…Seyal et al (2004) conducted a study in Pakistan. Vaidya (2004, 2006) conducted studies in India, and Kaynak et al (2005) conducted a study in Turkey. All of these studies have given useful findings about E-commerce adoption in different national and cultural contexts (see table 3).…”

The Adoption of Web-Based Marketing in the Travel and Tourism Industry: An Empirical Investigation in Egypt

“…Several studies (Kaynak et al, 2005;Stockdale and Standing, 2004;Taylor and Murphy, 2004) have suggested that much of the literature related to web and e-commerce adoption has been undertaken in developed countries. They argue that directly transferring these findings to developing countries is not justifiable because the driving forces for firms' adoption of the web and e-commerce vary widely from location to location (Kartiwi and MacGregor, 2007).…”

“…Among the commonly cited barriers to web adoption are management's lack of awareness of the technology, security concerns, cultural barriers, problems in solving compatibility issues with existing IT system, lack of online payment process, difficulty of finding and training qualified personnel, lack of human interaction and lack of resources (Mavromatis and Buhalis,2003;Poon and Swatman, 1997;Khan, 2004;Dedrick and Kraemer, 2001;Kaynak et al, 2005;Bolongkikit et al, 2006, Taylor andMurphy, 2004).…”

“…Similarly, Kaynak et al (2005), based on an empirical study on 237 manufacturing SMEs in Turkey found that perceived benefits including market development, accessibility to international markets and efficiency of sales and promotion were among the main reasons behind SMEs adoption of the Internet.…”