ADOPTABILITY OF E-COMMERCE IN SMES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; EVIDENCE FROM SAUDI ARABIA.

Abstract

E-commerce technology has become an important technology that is used by businesses and companies as an advantage and an asset over other companies. However, not all companies have been able to adopt technology, especially small and medium enterprises in developing countries. Which leaves those enterprises late or behind those who already adopted this technology, and other large companies will have the advantage over them. There are factors that influence the adoption of e-commerce in those enterprises (SMEs), this study investigates those factors using a model called perceived e-readiness model (PERM), and this study will be focusing on SMEs in Saudi Arabia. In this study, the dependent variable is e-commerce adoption, while the independent variables are organizational and environmental/external e-readiness. And the factors studied and investigated are Perceived benefits, technological resources, business resources, human resources, governance, commitment, government e-readiness, market forces e-readiness and supporting industries e-readiness. In the findings of this research, Perceived benefits, technological resources, human resources, commitment, market forces e-readiness and supporting industries e-readiness were found to have a positive and significant influence on e-commerce adoption. While governance was found to have a significant but negative influence, business resources and government e-readiness did not have a significant influence in this study.