A Conceptualization of the Determinants of Small Business Website Adoption

Abstract

As evidence mounts on the importance of small businesses and the opportunities presented by website adoption globally, it becomes important to understand the key issues that determine website adoption. However, the extant literature relating to small business website adoption is fragmented and fails to provide an understanding of what determines adoption.Therefore the key contribution of this article to current knowledge is the development of a conceptualization, supported by the literature, that will provide an interpretation of what determines small business website adoption. Critically, this is the first article to incorporate the important role that the small business marketing context plays within Internet technology adoption. The article develops nine hypotheses, which relate to the critical interactions and integration, within and between four determinant groupings underpinning the conceptualization.The nine hypotheses will guide and direct future research towards generating an empirically based understanding of what determines small business website adoption.

Relación de Capacitación con Adopción de Internet y E-Commerce: Diferencias entre Microemprendedores de Chile

“…En el ámbito específico de e-Commerce, también se han identificado aspectos relevantes que afectan su adopción, como la actitud de la dirección de empresa frente al e-Commerce (Simmons et al, 2008) y conocimientos y actitudes del personal que inciden en su implementación (Bruque y Moyano, 2007); en Latinoamérica, los estudios efectuados siguen sentido similar, por ejemplo, Nasco et al (2008) estiman que las actitudes de jefaturas de empresas chilenas inciden en su intención de adoptar eCommerce en las organizaciones que dirigen. Las investigaciones mencionadas reconocen que conocimientos y actitudes de directivos de empresas afectan la adopción de tecnología y e-Commerce en sus organizaciones, en coherencia con esta evidencia, se estima que la participación de microemprendedores en programas de formación, se relaciona en forma positiva con uso de Internet y desarrollo de actividades eCommerce en sus empresas.…”

Website content and design in SME: insights from Portugal

“…As mentioned earlier, SME play an invaluable role in countries' competitiveness and the world economy. Furthermore, they have unique features that distinguish them from large businesses (Simmons et al, 2008): they have a small market share; they are often managed by owners in a personalised way; they generally lack human and capital resources. Hence, website evaluation criteria should take these features into account.…”

“…This is rather surprising, as small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) account for ~90% of enterprises and more than 50% of employment worldwide (World Bank, 2013), along with the fact that SME have unique features (Simmons et al, 2008). Furthermore, the rare exceptions analyse only a limited set of content features and sometimes a few design features, or are confined to certain sectors (Burgess et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2011;Meroño-Cerdan and Soto-Acosta, 2007;Puentes et al, 2012;Schmidt et al, 2008;Sun et al, 2012).…”

The Adoption of Web-Based Marketing in the Travel and Tourism Industry: An Empirical Investigation in Egypt

“…The literature on SMEs adoption on the web emphasized the inherent characteristics and abilities of the owner/ manager as being key determinants of web adoption (Simmons et al, 2008;Bengtsson et al, 2007;Bharati and Chaudhury, 2006;Martin and Matlay, 2003;Barba-Sanchez et al, 2007). Based on an empirical study, Bharati and Chaudhury (2006) found that top management and customers were the main determinants for technology adoption by high-tech U.S. manufacturing firms.…”