Factors Affecting Adoption Of Electronic Commerce Among Small Medium Enterprises In Tanzania

This study intended to investigate the factors that affect ecommerce adoption in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the developing country context of Tanzania. This is against a milieu of literature that investigated ecommerce adoption in SMEs without much concern of surrounding socio-technical issues.The research was undertaken using an interpretive paradigm by employing survey methodology of165SMEs in Dar as salaam where2managers and2staffs from each SME was inclusive for a survey sample of660Dar as salaam SMEs. The SMEs included tourism sector, electronic and electric sector, service and maintenance sector, Electricity and power sector, food production and packing sector, wood and its products, paper products and printing both sector in manufacturing sector. Data collection tools and techniques involved face-to-face semi-structured and unstructured interviews, telephone interviews, website content analysis, and observations.Conceptual framework was developed to capture elements from extant e-commerce adoption literature that are defined in the research question. Data collected from each of the SME’s was analyzed to present the findings based on the elements described above. These elements include the following:1) the nature and characteristic of the business environment;2) use of ICT and Web Applications;3) managerial characteristics and perception of e-commerce;4) factors that affect ecommerce adoption or the lack of it;5) the interaction of the factors and how they determine the level of e-commerce adoption; and6) the role of the local business environment (please put this detailed of the above in the chapter required). As well36barriers of e-commerce adaptation which were gathered developed a detailed framework that guided the researcher throughout the research. These36barriers were grouped into6which included Organization barriers, Political barriers, Legal barriers, Social and culture barriers, Economic barriers and Technical barriersSeveral factors have been discussed and their impact on individual SMEs in the sample. These are:managerial characteristics and perception of e-commerce adoption, skilled ICT personnel, availability and slow speed of the Internet, the cost of setting-up and maintaining Internet applications, access to payment facilities, organizational culture, supplier and customer preferences, security concerns, local business environment, government role as customer, and the global economic recession. In summary, the study found that although the factors have been widely known to affect e-commerce adoption in SMEs, their manner of impact, interaction, and presentation in the selected SMEs shows similarities but differences as well.This research makes a theoretical contribution by proposing a conceptual framework for investigating factors affecting e-commerce adoption in SMEs. Furthermore, this study provides a theoretical contribution to e-commerce adoption literature on SMEs which has been insufficient. It provides a socially-constructed view of e-commerce adoption factors in a under-developed country context. Methodologically, the study provides an interpretive evaluation of e-commerce adoption research in a developing country context of Tanzania. Strategies for improving e-commerce development in the selected SMEs are presented, as well as implications of the research findings. This research provides insights in understanding SME e-commerce adoption factors in other contexts with similar characteristics.