An exploratory study of Internet adoption by SMEs in an emerging market economy

Abstract

This paper investigates the nature and extent of Internet use and the role of firm‐ and industry‐specific factors affecting Internet adoption by SMEs in an emerging market economy, Turkey. Based on the evidence from a sample of 237 manufacturing SMEs with Internet access in Turkey, the highest ranked Internet applications with the largest frequency of usage were found to be principally concerned with external communication and gathering information for market and product research. Of the five relevant firm‐ and industry‐specific subgroups, the most significant differences were found for two of the characteristics: amount of resources allocated for export development and international experience of the SME. In general, the SMEs have positive attitudes regarding Internet use. The SMEs are of the opinion that the Internet will become more attractive in future in terms of enhancing company image and being an important tool of doing business electronically.

Enabling the business strategy of SMEs through e‐business capabilities

“…The nine activities proposed are grouped under four categories, namely e-communication, ecommerce, e-intelligence and e-collaboration. This categorisation corresponds to various levels of e-business development observed in previous studies (Raymond et Bergeron, 1996;Kula et Tatoglu, 2003;Levy et Powell, 2003;Xu, Zhu et Gibbs, 2004), and adapted to the SME context.…”

Decision Factors for the Adoption and Continued Use of Online Direct Sales Channels among SMEs

“…However, the use of Internet technologies among SMEs is still limited primarily to the gathering of business information, product search (Kula and Tatoglu, 2003), and advertising (Fisher, Craig, and Bentley, 2007). Few SMEs have used the Internet as a sales channel (To and Ngai, 2006).…”

The Internet as an Alternative Distribution and Communication Channel for Smes Producing Quality Agro-Food Products

“…In this respect, in recent years companies, including SMEs, have made a great deal of effort and progress in the use of the Internet (Stevenson and Hamill, 2002). However, progress has not been uniform in all sectors (Kula and Tatoglu, 2003): agro-food firms make less use of the potential of the Internet than firms from other sectors.…”