A profile of Australian regional SME non-adopters of e-commerce

The sluggish pace of e-commerce adoption by regional SMEs in Australia is well documented and has been attributed to various barriers faced by the SME. The association between these barriers and business profile factors is not so well understood. This paper presents a study of247 non-adopting regional SMEs. The study shows that it is the organisational barriers, rather than the technical barriers, that appear to be uppermost in the minds of owner/managers where e-commerce adoption is concerned. The data also shows that the gender of the owner I manager, together with the market focus of the business, are associated with the rating of importance of barriers to e-commerce adoption.
Introduction Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are generally regarded as the cornerstone of developed economies. Most governments view the SME sector as a major driver of the economy and a [...]