The Impact of Firm-Based Characteristics on Adoption of E-commerce in SME in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The growth of information technology in the business world is spreading at a phenomenal rate. The success of a business organization stands at the usage of IT in their business. Growth of E-Commerce is the new born business method, which has originated through an extensive usage of IT in their business. SMEs under the BOI in Sri Lanka are far behind the fast moving world of IT. Though E-Commerce is accelerating at a high pace, most of the SMEs are still at the lower level compared to their competitors in business. This study will focus on the level of adoption of E-Commerce in a population of 30 SMEs under the BOI, the relationship between firmbased characteristics and the adoption of E-Commerce and also more importantly find out the critical success factors and discover potential benefits of adoption of E-Commerce in SMEs. The results on the Adoption of E- Commerce showed a significant relationship with the two firm based characteristics. That is Management Involvement and Adoption of IT. The study also identified E- Marketing and Supplier service as the critical success factors in adoption of ECommerce. Therefore, this research is conducted to assess the readiness for E-Commerce among the SME in Sri Lanka, and hopefully the research will help to convey the awareness among the SME towards ecommerce and help them to speed up their involvement in e-business.