Electronic commerce in small to medium-sized enterprises : frameworks, issues and implications

Electronic Commerce in Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises: Frameworks, Issues and Implications addresses eCommerce issues in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a global setting. The book aims at addressing issues that are of importance to researchers, to students, and to professionals interested in the eCommerce field in SMEs and hence, interested in addressing issues pertaining to theory and to practice.

Virtual communities of enterprise value creation potential for regional clusters

The research examines regionally networked small business practices. A new concept Virtual Communities of Enterprise is proferred to explain the nature of knowledge sharing both interpersonally and online, and its potential for creating value for small businesses and their regions. Social capital emerges as an essential pre-requisite for accessing value.

The ten commandments for global electronic commerce success in small business

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to national economies and employment levels and represent a viable source for inventions and innovations. The emergence of electronic commerce in the early 90's could provide different opportunities to the small business sector to overcome its inadequacies. However, in view of the electronic commerce/business (EC) literature in organizations in general and in SMEs specifically, EC research is scarce. Available research portrays a gloomy picture about EC uptake and use by SMEs. Therefore, this chapter attempts, by reviewing recent EC research, to depict an agenda for EC success in SMEs made up of ten influencing factors. Thus, an attempt is made to develop deeper understanding about the factors influencing EC success in SMEs. By following the suggested guidelines in this chapter, SMEs would be in a better position to assess the Viability o/the new EC perspective 10 their organizations. The same factors are highly important to researchers, SMEs, professionals (including educational institutions) and policymakers in driving SMEs and EC forward.

Innovation theories in retrospect : the case of electronic commerce adoption in small business in New Zealand

A review of the technological innovation adoption literature on small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) provides useful insights into factors influencing innovation adoption but points to the need to introduce more determinants of innovation adoption to SMEs research. This research is interested in identifying these factors and hence, introducing more potential determinants to electronic commerce (EC) adoption research in SMEs. Therefore, this research attempts to extend the technological innovation theories to EC adoption research in SMEs by identifying potential constructs and factors from these theories and then checking their face validity using three case studies in New Zealand. This research endeavours to shortlist and discuss the most important determinants of EC adoption and to eliminate the least relevant ones.

Critical factors for electronic commerce success in small business : a meta study

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to the national economies and to the employment levels of different countries and represent a viable source for inventions and innovations. The recent emergence of electronic commerce in the early nineties could provide different opportunities to the small business sector to overcome its inadequacies. However, in view of the electronic commerce/business (EC) literature in organisations in general and in SMEs specifically, it was observed that EC research is scarce. Therefore, this research attempts, by reviewing relevant EC literature, to develop deeper understanding about the factors influencing EC success in SMEs. The researcher found the following issues significantly influence EC success in SMEs: e-Value, e-Cost, e-Transformation, e-Product, e-Nvolvement, e-Nnovativeness, e-Competition, external e-Support, and e-Pressure. These factors are of importance to researchers, SMEs, professionals including educational institutions and policymakers in driving SMEs and EC forward.

Implications in e-commerce research in small business

It is believed that the recent emergence of electronic commerce (eCommerce) in the early 90s could provide different opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in overcoming part of their technological. environmental, organizational, and managerial inadequacies. However, recent research portrays a gloomy picture about eCommerce uptake and use in SMEs. Therefore. the implication here is twofold. Initially. there is a need to generate more eCommerce research that could penetrate much deeper into main impending issues pertaining to the SMEs in their potential uptake and use of eCommerce. On the other hand. eCommerce is characterized of being embryonic but growing very fast and fragmented across the different disciplines. which makes the task of capturing its different perspectives a very complex task. The preceding two implications represent the greatest challenge for researchers and professionals interested in undertaking eCommerce research in SMEs. In line with the above implications. the first objective of this research aims at capturing the different eCommerce perspectives from the SMEs point of view and the second objective aims at capturing the eCommerce perspective from the theoretical and the methodological point of view. Addressing the preceding implications in this research could shed some light into some of the grey areas in the eCommerce research in SMEs.

Adoption of technological innovations in the m-commerce industry

The banking industry has globalised as a result of the many technology innovations created by the internet. The electronic commerce (e-commerce) industry is a result of these technological innovations that have revolutionised the way both consumers and businesses conduct business. In the past decade, banks have encouraged the use of e-commerce and most people are now comfortable conducting their banking online. More recently, mobile commerce (m-commerce) has started to gain momentum and an increasing amount of people are conducting their banking on mobile phone devices instead of through the internet. Mobile banking is a technological innovation that people adopt in different ways depending on internal and external environmental influences. In this paper, a social cognitive theoretical framework is adopted to understand an individual’s intention to adopt mobile banking. A conceptual model is proposed, which helps to explain how environmental influences affect an individual’s intention to adopt mobile banking. Implications for mobile banking and m-commerce industry are stated along with suggestions for future research on technological innovations.

Small business peceptions of online marketing research

Concerns over the overall cost of marketing research and the cost per usable response have in large measure caused marketing practitioners to turn to online marketing research techniques, either as a solus technique, or in a mixed mode application. However, the use of e-mail and mixed mode surveys such as postal invitations to complete online questionnaires present both familiar and new issues, as the extant literature illustrates. This paper examines an earlier study before reporting findings from the present study, which employs a method that ascertains the probability of commissioning and/or responding to four survey research methods, described in scenarios and delivered using e-mail and the World Wide Web (Web). It is evident that while perceptions of e-mail, the Internet, and privacy have changed since early use of the Internet and more particularly the World Wide Web, and there is acknowledgment in the literature concerning the lower costs and faster response speeds of online marketing research, small businesses do appear to discriminate in favour of targeted online survey methods over postal surveys, portrayed as scenarios in this study. They indicate a greater likelihood of responding to targeted, hybrid email/Web surveys than traditional postal surveys.

The ecommerce strategy of New Zealand : policy implication for small business

This paper attempts to link findings of recent eCommerce research in small business in New Zealand with the Government’s eCommerce strategy. The research stresses the need for the Government to bridge the existing gap between small business and eCommerce. The strategy emphasises the Government’s role in providing leadership, in building the capability of New Zealanders, and in providing an enabling regulatory environment. The strategy is set out to be a complete partnership between Government, business, and the broader community to achieve these objectives. Recent progress on this strategy is reviewed and its significance to small business is discussed. The Government has actively embarked on setting up a comprehensive policy framework to guide the wide success of eCommerce in businesses in New Zealand. The Government’s progress in this regard is admirable. However, this research points to the importance of prioritising the implementation of certain strategies and of addressing impending eCommerce issues relevant to the small business sector in New Zealand.

Small business perceptions of postal and online survey research

Concerns over the overall cost of marketing research and the cost per usable response have in large measure caused marketing practitioners to turn to online marketing research techniques, either as a solus technique, or in a mixed mode application. However, the use of e-mail and mixed mode surveys such as postal invitations to complete online questionnaires present both familiar and new issues, as the extant literature illustrates. This paper examines an earlier study before reporting findings from the present study, which employs a method that ascertains the probability of commissioning four survey research methods, described in scenarios and delivered using e-mail and the World Wide Web (Web). It is evident that while perceptions of e-mail, the Internet, and privacy have changed since early use of the Internet and more particularly the World Wide Web, and there is acknowledgement in the literature concerning the lower costs and faster response speeds of online marketing research, small businesses do appear to discriminate in favour of targeted online survey methods over postal surveys, portrayed as scenarios in this study, but that this perception does not apply to all hybrid survey modes.

Securing small business - the role of information technology policy

As small and medium enterprises develop their capacity to trade  electronically, they and their trading partners stand to gain considerable benefit from the resulting transaction efficiencies and business  relationships. However, this raises the question of how well small business manages its IT security and the threats that security lapses may pose to the wider trading network. It is in the interest of all members of an electronic trading network, as well as governments, to assist smaller companies to secure their business data. This paper considers the relationship between IT security management and IT policy implementation among small  businesses involved in business-to-business eCommerce. It reports the results of a survey of 240 Australian small and medium businesses  operating in a cross-industry environment. The survey found a low level of strategic integration of eCommerce along with inadequate IT security among the respondents, despite the fact that 81% were doing business online and 97% identified their business data as confidential. Businesses which implemented satisfactory levels of security technologies were more likely than others to have an information technology policy within the organisation. The paper proposes a model that outlines the development of security governance and policy implementation for small and medium businesses.

Moving from a web presence to e-commerce : the importance of a business-web strategy for small-business owners

More than half of small businesses in Australia (57%) use a website to promote their business. Having an effective website is an important step for small business owners moving towards e-commerce. The research suggests that once a business has a clear online strategy through a website they are more likely to move to e-commerce. While many small business owners have a business strategy, it is often the case that this strategy does not include their Web presence. This paper describes the results of interviews with small business owners and assessment of their websites. We identify elements that are important for small business owners developing a business-Web strategy. The research indicates that many owners see their websites as little more than an advertising medium and few are ready for the move to e-commerce. Identifying the level of maturity of a small business owner's business-Web strategy however can help us understand how prepared a small business owner is to move to e-commerce.