An examination of e-market adoption in Australian SMEs

ABSTRACT This paper examines the current state of electronic market (e-market) adoption in Australian SMEs based on survey data from 948 firms. The results show that the level of e-market adoption in Australian SMEs is still low with the dominant trend of adoption focusing on building their own e-markets. This is problematic for SMEs provided with the limited financial resources and technical expertise in SMEs for creating and maintaining an e-market. The adoption of a public e-market, as a result, should be promoted by the Australian government department for making a greater potential of the e-market in SMEs. The adoption of e-market in Australian SMEs does not differ much in terms of size but in different industries. Industries with high information dependence and low information tacitness have a higher chance of the adoption of e-market for conducting electronic commerce activities.