Abstract
The current research attempt to investigate the significance of an adoption model for eCommerce technology (EC) in small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand. The research model hypothesised ten factors as influencing EC adoption significantly in SMEs: eAdvantage, eCost, eTransformation, size, eProduct, eSupport, ePressure, eCompetition, eNnovativeness, and eNvolvement. Further, the model attempted to differentiate between adopters and non-adopters in terms of the adopted EC and hence, categorised them into three clusters of adoption: starters, innovators, and extended innovators. It was believed that such taxonomy would assist the current research in detecting the EC adoption criteria across the three clusters and hence, develop more insights around EC adoption in SMEs. The research findings indicates that: (1) starters: the adoption of the Internet and external email was dependent on the innovativeness (eNnovativeness) of the manager; (2) innovators: the adoption of any of the EC infrastructure was dependent on eNnovativeness, organisation size, and eTransformation; and (3) extended innovators: the adoption of more EC was dependent on size, eTransformation, eNnovativeness, eSupport, and eCompetition. It was the innovators and the extended innovators that started to witness the effect of the other factors on EC adoption. However, the SMEs highlighted the negative significant effect of eTransformation and eSupports on their EC adoption decision. The research points to other significant influencers on EC adoption and addresses implications in theory and in practice pertaining to the New Zealand perspective.
Recommended Citation
Al-Qirim, Nabeel A Y and Corbitt, Brian J., "An Empirical Investigation of an eCommerce Adoption Model in Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises in New Zealand" (2002). PACIS 2002 Proceedings. 40.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2002/40