Success in electronic commerce implementation : A cross‐country study of small and medium‐sized enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of electronic commerce (EC) implementation success for small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), and to present outcomes of a comparative study between two countries to reflect the differences in the adoption strategies and explore reasons behind such variations. Design/methodology/approach – Preliminary studies were conducted in both Australia and Singapore prior to a cross‐country survey, which collected the perceptions of small businesses about their experience with internet‐based EC. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the influencing factors that affect success in the implementation of internet‐based EC. Findings – By regressing overall satisfaction on the 19 influencing factors of EC success, the paper found that five factors: observability; communication channel; customer pressure; supplier pressure; and perceived governmental support, make significant contribution to the adoption of internet‐based EC in Australia; and only three factors: firm size; perceived readiness; and observability, have significant impact in Singapore. Research limitations/implications – The exploratory nature of the research means confirmatory or causally directional hypotheses could be generated in the future. It would also be insightful to conduct longitudinal studies to confirm the direction, to help clarify causality and test for feedback effects of adoption decisions. There was also no attempt made to control for industry type, which could tested more intensively in a chosen industry. Generalisability to other geographical context could be achieved if the research model can be tested over several other countries. Practical implications – The study has found that the proposed model can be used in investigating drivers of EC implementation in SMEs, and the empirical data has adequately supported the model. The findings show that the organisational and innovation characteristics are necessary, but to provide a more comprehensive picture in explaining the implementation behaviour of SMEs, one needs to consider other factors and contexts especially when testing the model in different countries. Communication methods employed, government support, external pressure from customers and suppliers have been found to be very important for Australian SMEs in this decision. Originality/value – A major contribution of this study is that it provides an understanding of what the organisational, technological, communication, and external environmental drivers of EC implementation are. The findings of this study could also help companies embarking upon cross border activities by illustrating the differences in EC adoption between the two Asia‐Pacific nations. The study also provides a close examination of the inhibiting and facilitating factors which can affect EC adoption success. By knowing the relative importance of these factors, SMEs may be spared from expending their limited resources and energy on less important factors which have limited contribution to EC implementation success.