A Research Trilogy into E‐Commerce Adoption in Small Businesses in New Zealand

Abstract

This research trilogy about e‐commerce (EC) adoption in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand (NZ) started with a survey research, followed by an initial focus group (FG) research and concluded with a second FG in order to fill some of the gaps in the first FG and to add more insights into the EC phenomenon in NZ SMEs. In this research, nine factors were identified from the technological innovation literature as potential determinants of EC adoption in SMEs. The research findings highlighted three main issues pertaining to EC adoption in NZ SMEs. First, at the ‘low level’ of adoption such as adopting simple email and Web pages, none of the research factors seemed to strongly influence the adoption decision of EC as such. This finding highlighted the importance of the communication aspect of EC and of having a presence in cyberspace even if it was a simple one. Second, the majority of the NZ SMEs perceived to progress these simple EC initiatives in the long‐term projections only. They called such initiatives as ‘advanced levels of EC’ where they envisaged adopting fully functional and interactive websites. At this level of adoption, the participants started to raise the importance of the different factors to their adoption decision of EC. However, this was contrasted by the fact that the participants stressed that they would not risk investing their scant resources on perceived risky advanced EC initiatives. The last point pertains to the SMEs that adopted different EC technologies ‘high adopters’ such as websites, Intranet and Extranet technologies. This category retained a positive view about EC and indicated that non‐adopters of EC and ‘low level’ adopters should not be deterred from adopting EC and that all their fears were mere misperceptions. The overall results indicated that EC adoption and use among NZ SMEs was limited. The research highlights professional and theoretical significance and implications.

Keywords:

• e‐commerce in New Zealand SMEs
• adoption framework
• survey
• focus groups
• multiple methodologies framework

Notes

1. That is why it is not surprising that large enterprises attracted most of the attention of researchers, professionals including the media (big bang resources and projects).

2. Information and Communication Technologies

3. Bloor et al. (2001) denied the claim that FG is a feminist method (pursue feminist topics) as being dangerous and over‐blown.