SMEs in Developing Countries Face Challenges in Adopting e-commerce Technologies

Abstract

Although research indicates e-commerce offers viable and practical solutions for organizations to meet challenges of a predominantly changing environment, the few available studies related to SMEs in developing countries reveal a delay or failure of SMEs in adopting e-transformation technologies. The various factors identified as causes for the reticence can be broadly classified as Internal Barriers and External Barriers. This paper presents a model for barriers to adoption of ICT and e-commerce and the results of an exploratory pilot study and survey. This research also identifies support required by SMEs in a developing country, Sri Lanka.