Electronic Commerce has increased the global reach of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs); its acceptance as an IT infrastructure depends on the users' conscious assessment of the influencing constructs as depicted in Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Technology-Organization-Environment (T-O-E) model. The original TAM assumes the constructs of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU); TPB perceived behavioural control and subjective norms; and TO -E firm's size, consumer readiness, trading partners' readiness, competitive pressure, and scope of business operation. This paper reviewed and synthesized the constructs of these models and proposed an improved TAM through TO -E. The improved TAM and TO -E integrated more constructs than the original TAM, TO -E, TPB, and IDT, leading to eighteen propositions to promote and facilitate future research, and to guide explanation and prediction of IT adoption in an organized system. The integrated constructs-company mission, individual difference factors, perceived trust, and perceived service quality improve existing knowledge on EC acceptance and provide bases for informed decision(s).

Purpose The T-O-E framework enjoys robust scholarly accolade but it rarely espouses clearly task and individual factors. Although task and individual contexts had been separately addressed by task-technology-fit (TTF) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), respectively, the purpose of this paper is to complement and/or extend the T-O-E’s insights by integrating TTF and UTAUT frameworks, and developing and empirically testing a 12-factor framework that spans five contexts. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were proportionally collected from six groups of small service enterprises with strong operations in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and the mode of sampling was purposive and snow-ball while analysis involved logistic likelihood regression. Findings The relationship between adoption and the factors within the contexts of technology, organization, environment and task were statistically supported though some had negative coefficients. For individual context, social factor had a statistically significant negative coefficient but hedonistic drive was not statistically supported. Research limitations/implications The study is limited by its scope of coverage; therefore, extended data are needed to apply the findings to other sectors/industries and to factor in the implementation and post-adoption phases and business-to-business adoption in order to forge a more integrated and holistic adoption framework. Practical implications The findings encourage vendors and policy makers to place more premiums on organizational and task factors than on technological, environmental and individual factors and to craft informed marketing programs that would appeal to actual and potential adopters and cause them to progress in the loyalty ladder. Originality/value This paper contributes to the growing research on technology adoption; it uses factors within the T-O-E, TTF and UTAUT frameworks to explain adoption of technologies and to establish the underlying relationships amongst T-O-E factors through integrating other useful frameworks.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to attempts to provide further insight into IS adoption by investigating how 12 factors within the technology-organization-environment framework explain small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Design/methodology/approach The approach for data collection was questionnaire survey involving executives of SMEs drawn from six fast service enterprises with strong operations in Port Harcourt. The mode of sampling was purposive and snow ball and analysis involves logistic regression test; the likelihood ratios, Hosmer and Lemeshow’s goodness of fit, and Nagelkerke’s R2 provided the necessary lenses. Findings The 12 hypothesized relationships were supported with each factor differing in its statistical coefficient and some bearing negative values. ICT infrastructures, technical know-how, perceived compatibility, perceived values, security, and firm’s size were found statistically significant adoption determinants. Although, scope of business operations, trading partners’ readiness, demographic composition, subjective norms, external supports, and competitive pressures were equally critical but their negative coefficients suggest they pose less of an obstacle to adopters than to non-adopters. Thus, adoption of ERP by SMEs is more driven by technological factors than by organizational and environmental factors. Research limitations/implications The study is limited by its scope of data collection and phases, therefore extended data are needed to apply the findings to other sectors/industries and to factor in the implementation and post-adoption phases in order to forge a more integrated and holistic adoption framework. Practical implications The model may be used by IS vendors to make investment decisions, to meet customers’ needs, and to craft informed marketing programs that would appeal to actual and potential adopters and cause them to progress in the customer loyalty ladder. Originality/value The paper contributes to the growing research on IS innovations’ adoption by using factors within the T-O-E framework to explains SMEs’ adoption of ERP.

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Purpose This paper aims to propose and test a ten-factor framework of four contexts from technology-organization-environment (T-O-E) theory and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to provide insight(s) that complements and extends extant inquiries on technology adoption. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from small service enterprises with strong operations in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and the mode of sampling was purposive and snow ball, whereas analysis involved structural equation modeling. Findings The results show that factors in the technological, organizational and environmental contexts have direct statistically significant relationship with adoption; thus, adoption is more driven by T-O-E factors than by individual factors. For individual context, social factor equally was statistically supported, whereas hedonistic drive was not. Research limitations/implications The study is limited by its scope of data collection and phases; therefore, extended data are needed to apply the findings to other sectors/industries/countries and to factor in the implementation and post-adoption phases and business to business (B2B) adoption to forge a more holistic framework. Practical/implications Implicit is that the findings encourage vendors and policy makers to recognize the strength of interpersonal and group relationships in addition to T-O-E contexts in developing investment decisions. Originality/value The paper contributes to the growing research on innovation adoption by using factors within the T-O-E and UTAUT frameworks to explain SMEs’ adoption of technologies.