Electronic commerce development in small and medium sized enterprises : A stage model and its implications

The 1990s have witnessed the proliferation and hypergrowth of the Internet which, combined with traditional IT technologies, is creating a global, and cost‐effective platform for businesses to communicate and conduct commerce. Because of today’s shrinking world, companies must create new sources of competitive advantage almost on a daily basis. This fact becomes critical for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) because they are considered to be a major component of all economies and are generally considered to be flexible, adaptive and innovative organizations, which appears to make them a good fit for electronic (e)‐commerce. The present study presents an in‐depth analysis of the e‐commerce development stages and the facilitators and barriers for SMEs during each stage.