Impact of introducing e-commerce on small and medium enterprises – a case on logistics provider

Purpose: Small and medium enterprises (SME) significantly alleviate poverty and generate employment to achieve sustainable economic growth. Using electronic devices, e-commerce allows an immediate and advanced communication service to accomplish business transactions. Considering logistics provider as a case, this paper aims to examine the impact of adopting an e-commerce technology on its customers’ and agents’ satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use the difference in difference methodology to examine these effects and find positive impacts on both customers and service providers. Findings: As SMEs are widely considered as the powerhouse of an economy, the authors’ findings suggest that using e-commerce not only makes an SME agent more efficient but also accelerates an SME business transaction, which ultimately helps to achieve sustainable economic growth. Originality/value: A few studies are conducted in examining the impact of SME on economy. However, according to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that examines the impact of e-commerce on SME.