| The adoption of Internet Commerce by small businesses appears to be related to four adoption contexts: (1) Characteristics of Organization Leaders such as CEO's internet commerce knowledge and CEO's innovativeness; (2) Organizational Context such as business size, training availability, and technical expertise; (3) Environmental Context such as competitive forces; and (4) Technological Context such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, perceived benefits and perceived barriers. The relationships between these contexts and internet commerce adoption were examined in this study in an effort to improve the current level of understanding of the determinants of internet commerce adoption and the level of adoption.;The goal of this dissertation was to investigate the factors and their influence on determining the adoption and extent of adoption of Internet Commerce in a small business. A questionnaire was used to gather information relevant to the hypotheses. The final sample included CEOs/owners of 136 U.S. small businesses.;Results of this study revealed that Characteristics of the Organization Leader namely CEO's Internet technology knowledge; Organizational Context such as business size, training availability, and technical expertise; and Technological Context such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers are significantly different between adopters and non-adopters of internet commerce. No statistically significant differences were established between adopters and non-adopters of internet commerce for CEO's innovativeness and the Environmental Context.;The data also supported the significance of eight variables that had an impact on the extent of internet commerce adoption. These factors include CEO's Internet technology knowledge, business size, technical expertise, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers. No statistically significant impact on extent of internet commerce adoption was established for CEO's innovativeness, competitive forces, and training availability. |
