Inter-Country Analysis of Electronic Commerce Adoption in South Eastern Europe: Policy Recommendations for the Region

Abstract

The 'digital divide' between developed and non-developed countries in terms of adoption of new technologies and particularly the Internet and electronic commerce is a heavily debated issue. In this paper we examine its manifestation in the area of south eastern Europe which is in a less advanced position compared to western Europe. We use data from 8 counties, collected from local key stakeholders such as government agencies and professional bodies. We use a framework developed by King et al. (1994) regarding institutional actions related to IT diffusion and examine the ones pursued by regional policy makers for the diffusion of electronic commerce. The data are presented by using SWOT analysis with the view to portray the situation of electronic commerce adoption in each country under investigation. A collective analysis of the research findings offers the possibility to extract the "success factors" in government intervention in supporting electronic commerce diffusion. Our aim is to provide recommendations about good practices in electronic commerce policy making in the region towards the elimination of the digital divide with western Europe.

Facilitating E-Commerce in Jordan: A Qualitative Analysis

“…Several scholars have investigated the government support of e-commerce development and have found that businesses who adopted e-commerce were perceived higher government support than nonadopters [13]; [17]; [18]; [19]; [20]; [21]. In Singapore, for example, the government support level was high enough to lead the country in ecommerce adoption, not only in their initiative towards e-commerce infrastructure but also in developing a strategic plan to increase the level of awareness among society [22].Therefore, the Jordanian government should plan strategies to achieve and raise national awareness of the Internet and e-commerce by providing a marketplace that complies with customers' needs, reducing the administration, operations costs, taxation, and increasing the investment in the ICT infrastructure [23].…”

E-Commerce Adoption Model for Traditional Retailers in Developing Countries

“…This might influence their decisions to adopt e-commerce. Many studies have explored the level of government support towards e-commerce adoption and have found that adopter firms perceived higher government support than non-adopter firms [16]; [17]; [10]; [18]; [15]; [19]; [20]; [21]. In Italy, Scupola [22], found that the government plays an important role as an external factor affecting ecommerce adoption.…”

Factors Affecting E-commerce Adoption and Implementation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

“…For example past studies have shown that innovations diffuse differently depending on the country socio-cultural environment. Other important factors are the level of national infrastructure and government involvement in fostering e-commerce adoption [17,18]. A thorough literature review shows that significant external factors that might influence SMEs' e-commerce adoption are competitive pressures [16,19], pressure from trading partners such as buyers and suppliers [11,20], the role of government [9,12], and technology support infrastructure such as access and quality of ICT consulting services [9].…”