Journal of Marketing Management, 2004, 20, pages

ISSN0267-257X/2002/010001+01 £4.00/0 ©Westburn Publishers Ltd.

Ha Lau Chinga and Paul Ellis1b

Marketing in Cyberspace: What Factors Drive E-Commerce Adoption?

Hong Kong Baptist Universitya

Hong Kong Polytechnic Universityb

What factors affect the adoption of e-commerce among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? In this study, e-commerce adopters are classified according to White et al.’s (1998) labels, namely traditionalist, straddler, and innovator. Interview data collected from 84 firms are used to illustrate a hypothesis-testing methodology linking various decision-maker, innovation, and environmental characteristics with the propensity to adopt online marketing.

Keywords: internet, marketing, adoption, e-commerce, international An earlier version of this paper was presented at the European Marketing Academy Conference in Bergen in May 2001. Earlier drafts of this paper were read by Howard Davies, Abhik Roy, Leslie Yip, and Anthony Pecotich. The authors are grateful for the constructive feedback provided. However, the usual caveat applies. This project was supported by the Hong Kong University Grants Council (G-V639). Introduction Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, which describes technologically-mediated exchanges (Rayport and Jaworski, 2002), has grown rapidly in direct proportion to the increasing ubiquity of commercial websites. Even allowing for the US economic recession of 2001, global online trade is still predicted to expand at annual rates in excess of 50 per cent reaching the US$2 trillion mark for business-to-business transactions by 2004 (Infotech, 2003). Using the Internet, individuals and organizations can transact electronically anywhere in the world: information can be requested and provided, orders placed and filled, products can be delivered and services performed. Consequently, e-commerce, and online marketing in particular, have become important new competitive realities. It can now be said that “business today competes in two worlds: a physical world of resources that managers can see and touch and a virtual world made of information” (Rayport and Sviokla 1995, p.75). 1 Correspondence: Ha Lau Ching, Department of Marketing, Baptist University, 6/F The Wing Lung Bank Building for Business Studies, 34 Renfrew Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Ph: (852) 3411 7319, Fax: (852) 3411 5586, greenieh@hkbu.edu.hk

2 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis The aim of this study is to identify those factors which drive the adoption of e-commerce in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular emphasis on online marketing. Although considerable research has been done to date investigating the early online marketing experiences of firms, much of this research is descriptive in nature providing little insight into the reasons why some firms adopt quicker than others, and why some don’t adopt at all. In this study the adoption of e-commerce is defined as using Internet-related applications to support marketing operations, management, and decision-making in business. By drawing on the insights of classic organizational diffusion research (e.g. Gatignon and Robertson 1989; Kimberly and Evanisko 1981) as well as recent studies relating to the adoption of information technology (e.g. Premkumar and Roberts 1999; Thong 1999), a number of hypotheses are derived.

The paper is organised in to four parts. In the next section a brief review of existing research on e-commerce is presented. Borrowing chiefly from diffusion theory, a number of hypotheses are then identified linking various decision-maker, innovation, and environmental characteristics with the propensity to adopt online marketing. Next, the methodology is described and this is followed by a discussion of the study’s findings and their implications for scholars and business practitioners. Background The aim of this study is to identify those factors which affect the adoption of e-commerce among SMEs. This question is fundamental in nature yet has received surprisingly little attention in the swelling body of Internet-related research. Much of the existing literature is descriptive providing little more than classifications of current and anticipated online business practices (e.g. Bennett 1997; Hamill and Gregory 1997; Poon and Swatman 1997). To date few studies have attempted to go beyond simple descriptive goals of identifying online marketing practices or measure their perceived benefits (Table I).

Over the past few years a body of research has emerged documenting the early experiences of firms engaged in online marketing (Cronin 1996; Ellsworth and Ellsworth 1996; Hamill and Gregory 1997; Poon and Swatman 1997; Soh, et al. 1997; Teo et al. 1997). Reflecting the pattern of Internet adoption itself, early research in this area originated in the US (e.g. Breitenbach and Van Doren, 1998; Vadapalli and Ramamurthy, 1997) and Europe (e.g. Bennett 1997; Webb and Sayer, 1998). Lately, more studies on Internet marketing have been done in countries such as Singapore (Phau and Poon, 2000; Teo, 2001), and Australia (Fenech and O’Cass, 2001; Poon and Joseph, 2001). Based on this pattern of diffusion it is possible that in the next

Marketing in Cyberspace 3 five or so years more Internet-related research will begin to emerge from developing countries such as China.

A close inspection of the existing body of research reveals one notable omission – Hong Kong. Recently ranked as one of the world’s top mobile Internet adopting nations by the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, Hong Kong would appear to be an ideal site for investigating Internet marketing practices (ITU, 2003). Hong Kong businesses are among the world’s most sophisticated users of IT yet surprisingly, there is little published research investigating the online marketing practices of these firms. Moreover, much of this trend is the result of actions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In Hong Kong, SMEs contribute 48 percent of the GDP, employ 60 per cent of the workforce, and make up 98 per cent of the total number business enterprises (SME, 2003). Consequently, one objective of this study is to redress this empirical imbalance by investigating the early online marketing experiences of Hong Kong SMEs.

Adoption Of E-Commerce In his seminal work, Rogers (1983) defined an innovation as any idea, practice, or object that is perceived as being new by an individual or other unit of adoption. The innovation presents potential adopters with a new means of solving problems and exploiting opportunities. According to Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory, an individual first forms an attitude toward the innovation leading to a decision to adopt or reject the innovation. If the innovation is perceived to be better than the existing system (a measure of its relative advantage), is consistent with needs of the potential adopter (a measure of its compatibility), and is easy to understand and use (a measure of its complexity), it is more likely that a favourable attitude towards the innovation will be formed.

Since Rogers’ (1983) seminal work, these innovation characteristics have been identified as salient in a number of studies pertaining to the adoption of technological innovations (e.g. Brancheau, and Wetherbe, 1990; Cooper and Zmud, 1990; Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Tornatzky and Klein, 1982). For example, Premkumar and Roberts’ (1999) identified a perceived relative advantage as being a significant factor driving the adoption of new information technologies in 78 small rural businesses. These authors also found adoption to be affected by top management support, organizational size, and competitive pressure. Relatedly, Thong (1999) found that the perceived relative advantage, compatibility and complexity of the innovation played a key role in the adoption of information systems in 166 small Singaporean firms. Innovation characteristics were not, however, the only factors affecting adoption.

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Marketing in Cyberspace 5 Thong found that certain decision-maker traits (e.g. innovativeness and level of information systems knowledge) and organizational characteristics (e.g. business size) also played a role. Finally, a study by Teo et al. (1997) based on questionnaires sent to 500 Internet-using companies in Singapore, reported a strong role for compatibility of the Internet with organization culture and infrastructure, top management support, and potential relative advantage.

In addition to innovation-specific characteristics such as compatibility and complexity, other factors may affect the decision to adopt. Existing research within the diffusion of innovations milieu has identified, for example, the importance of various decision-maker characteristics and environmental factors. A brief summary of these findings is presented in Table 2. In this section each variable will be discussed in terms of its possible impact on the adoption of e-commerce. Table 2. Key Adoption Drivers Identified in Diffusion Research Independent variables Relationship Supporting References Decision-maker characteristics

Age - Brancheau & Wetherbe (1990); Ozanne & Churchill (1971); Thong (1999)

Education + Brancheau & Wetherbe (1990); Kimberly and Evanisko (1981); Palvia et al. (1994)

Cosmopolitanism + Gatignon & Robertson (1989); Kimberly (1978); Kimberly & Evanisko (1981); Ozanne & Churchill (1971); Robertson & Wind (1983); Rogers (1983)

Innovation characteristics

Relative advantages + Moore & Benbasat (1991); Premkumar et al. (1994); Premkumar & Roberts (1999); Rogers (1983); Teo et al. (1997/98); Thong (1999); Thong & Yap (1995)

Compatibility + Cooper & Zmud (1990); Moore & Benbasat (1991); Premkumar et al. (1994); Premkumar & Roberts (1999); Rogers (1983); Teo et al. (1997/98); Thong (1999)

Complexity - Cooper & Zmud (1990); Moore & Benbasat (1991); Premkumar & Roberts (1999); Rogers (1983); Thong (1999); Tornatzky & Klein (1982)

Cost-effectiveness + Fink (1998); Mansfield (1968); Premkumar et al. (1994); Premkumar & Roberts (1999); Tornatzky & Klein (1982); Rogers (1983)

Environmental characteristics

Supplier incentives + Gatignon & Robertson (1989); Premukumar & Roberts (1999)

Competitive intensity + Gatignon & Robertson (1989); Kimberly & Evanisko (1981); Premkumar & Roberts (1999); Thong (1999); Thong & Yap (1995)

Customers’ pressure + Premukumar & Roberts (1999); Thong & Yap (1995)

Decision-maker characteristics

6 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis

In a small or medium-sized business, the decision-maker is usually the owner/manager. Decision-maker characteristics are important in determining the innovative attitude of SMEs (Rizzoni, 1991; Thong and Yap, 1995). Several studies have found adoption generally to be correlated with the decision-maker’s age (e.g. Brancheau and Wetherbe, 1990; Thong, 1999), level of education (Kimberly and Evanisko, 1981; Palvia et al. 1994; Rogers, 1983), and degree of cosmopolitanism (Blythe, 1999; Gatignon and Robertson, 1989). In general, research has found that adopting decision-makers tend to be younger, better educated, and more outward-looking, or cosmopolitan, than non-adopters (Kimberly, 1978; Ozanne and Churchill, 1971; Robertson and Wind, 1983; Rogers, 1983). Innovation characteristics

Based on their meta-analysis of 75 studies, Tornatzky and Klein (1982) concluded that the propensity to adopt a technological innovation is related to the three characteristics later popularised by Rogers (1983); relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity. Relative advantage describes the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being better than its precursor (Rogers, 1983, p.213). Decision-makers who perceive a relative advantage in an innovation will be more likely to adopt (Premkumar et al. 1994; Teo, et al. 1997; Thong, 1999; Thong and Yap, 1995). This propensity is reinforced if the innovation is seen to be compatible with the existing values, needs, and experiences of the potential adopter (Rogers, 1983, p.223). Consequently, a number of studies have found compatibility to be a significant factor affecting adoption (Cooper and Zmud, 1990; Teo, et al., 1997; Thong, 1999). However, adoption will be less likely if the innovation is perceived as being complex or difficult to use (Rogers, 1983, p.230). Accordingly, research has also shown that the complexity of an innovation is negatively related to adoption (Cooper and Zmud, 1990; Tornatzky and Klein, 1982; Thong, 1999).

Additionally, adoption will be driven by the perceived costs and benefits inherent in the particular innovation. The cost of an innovation has many components – initial investment costs, operational costs, and the costs of learning how to use the new innovation. Palvia, et al. (1994) have suggested that cost is not a significant deterrent in the adoption of information technologies for SMEs due to the commoditization of hardware and availability of cheap, user-friendly software packages. However, IT users in the study reported by Ha (2000) took a different view acknowledging that the learning and economic costs entailed in the setting up of a secure online presence remains a significant barrier to adoption for some SMEs. This finding is consistent with other studies that have found cost to be an important variable affecting adoption (Fink, 1998; Premkumar, et al., 1994; Tornatzky and Klein, 1982).

Marketing in Cyberspace 7 Environmental characteristics

In addition to decision-maker traits and the characteristics of innovations themselves, recent adoption research has identified the importance of various environmental factors such as supplier incentives (Gatignon and Robertson, 1989), intense competition (Thong and Yap, 1995), and pressure from demanding customers (Premukumar and Roberts, 1999). Incentives offered by suppliers have been found to have a measurable effect on adoption (Gatignon and Robertson, 1989). In Ha’s (2000) exploratory study, informants acknowledged an important catalyst to the adoption of websites were incentives offered by their Internet service providers. Intense competition within industries has also been found to be correlated with the propensity to adopt (Delone, 1988; Gatignon and Robertson, 1989; Kimberly and Evanisko, 1981). Inter-firm rivalry induces an incentive to adopt innovations which may be a source of competitive advantage and provides a benchmark against which the success of an innovation may be gauged (Ettlie, 1983; Gatignon and Robertson, 1989; Kimberly and Evanisko, 1981). Similarly, pressure to adopt new technologies may come, not from rivals, but from customers themselves (Premukumar and Roberts, 1999). Customer demands may be even more salient for SMEs with large clients. Again, in the study reported by Ha (2000), some SME managers reported that the decision to set up websites or switch to email had come in direct response to requests from powerful US buyers.

What factors drive the adoption of e-commerce in SMEs? Based on the findings of existing research, ten hypotheses are derived (Table III). It is proposed that adoption will be positively correlated with the decision-maker’s level of education and cosmopolitanism as well as the perceived advantages of the innovation itself relative to substitutes and its compatibility with existing business values. Adoption will also be related to supplier incentives, competitive intensity and customer pressure. However, adoption will be negatively correlated with the decision-maker’s age, the perceived costs of adopting, and the complexity of the innovation. Research Design Operational measures for the constructs identified in the hypotheses were drawn from existing studies. Based on these indicators a survey instrument (see Appendix) was designed and pre-tested on a sample of nine firms. The pre-test led to the abandonment of two variables revealed by informants to be irrelevant in the context of most Hong Kong SMEs, namely government support and Internet knowledge of employees.

8 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis Table 3. The Study’s Hypotheses

Variable group Hypotheses (sign) Extent of adoption related to; decision-maker characteristics 1. decision-maker’s age (-)

2. decision-maker’s level of education (+) 3. decision-maker’s cosmopolitanism (+)

innovation characteristics 4. perceived advantages of the Internet (+)

5. perceived compatibility of the Internet(+) 6. perceived complexity of the Internet (-) 7. perceived cost of going online (-)

environmental characteristics 8. availability of supplier incentives (+)

9. competitive intensity (+) 10. pressure from customers (+)

Sample Selection

In this study data were collected from 84 SMEs based in Hong Kong. For the purposes of this study, manufacturing and service SMEs were defined as employing fewer than 100 and 50 workers respectively. A firm employing less than 20 staff was deemed to be a small firm; the remainder were classified as medium-sized. The decision to focus on SMEs was based on an assumption prevalent in existing Internet marketing research that SMEs have the potential to reap greater benefits from going online than larger firms (Poon and Swatman, 1997). Due to their small size, SMEs can respond rapidly to online opportunities, unencumbered by bureaucracy and divisional friction (Haynes, et al., 1998; Kiani, 1998). The only other consideration used in sampling, was that sampled firms needed to maintain a commercial website at the time of the interview.

Hong Kong is arguably an ideal location for a study of this nature given that it is one of the fastest e-commerce adopting cities in the Asian region. On the supply-side, there were only twelve companies licensed to provide more than 10,000 dial-up accounts in 1994. But by the beginning of 2001 the number of Internet Service Providers had increased more than two thousand percent to 260 companies. In terms of consumer demand for Internet access, at the beginning of 2001 Internet traffic in Hong Kong via broadband networks was measured at 1,587 terabits. Within 24 months that number had increased 17 times to more than 27,000 terabits (OFTA, 2003). A multiple-case study investigating the online experiences of sixteen Hong Kong SMEs, revealed that many executives now view the adoption of electronic- or e-commerce as a must in maintaining a competitive advantage in international markets (Ha, 2000).

Firms in the final sample were identified randomly from the Hong Kong

Marketing in Cyberspace 9 Internet Directory. In total, 84 firms from eight diverse industries (i.e., toys, garments, computer services, freight forwarding, floral delivery, travel agencies, food manufacturing, and bookshops) were identified. The representation of a wide variety of industries was inevitable given that no single industry in Hong Kong could be identified as having a suitably large number of online firms. Data Collection

Consistent with the exploratory aims of this study, personal interviews with owner/managers were conducted over a six-month period with a sample of 84 SMEs in order to generate insight into the ways and means by which firms had come to adopt e-commerce. The use of in-depth interviews, which was a choice consistent with other Internet marketing studies (e.g. Doherty, Ellis-Chadwick, and Hart, (1999), and Poon and Swatman (1997)), was prompted by the generally poor receptivity to mail surveys among busy Hong Kong executives (see for example, Chan and Ellis (1997)). In this study semi-structured interviews ranged in length from 20 to 60 minutes and averaged around 30 minutes. Although there was considerable scope for informants to “tell their adoption story”, each interview followed a standardized protocol or guide (available from the authors) containing the specific questions operationalizing the constructs under consideration (Appendix). Findings and Discussion Classifying the Firms

Classifying a multi-industry sample of firms according to their level of relative adoption proved to be somewhat problematic. The simplest solution would have been to discriminate on the basis of certain features exhibited on the company’s website or on the proportion of enquiries arriving via the Internet as opposed to more traditional communication channels. However, an informal survey revealed that strong industry-specific effects would come into play with the use of such measures. For example, in some industries (such as trading) a far greater proportion of business is done online than in other industries (such as toy manufacturing). This means that a trader who is a timid adopter relative to others in the same industry, might be rated as an aggressive adopter relative to toy-makers. To resolve this problem, each firm studied was categorised according to White, et al.'s (1998) three adopter labels, namely traditionalist, straddler, and innovator. While not perfect, these definitions go further than simple measures of website features by encompassing a variety of promotional, communication and payment activities.

10 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis According to White et al.’s (1998) definition, a traditionalist is a timid adopter, often using the Web simply to advertise and to provide directory information. A straddler makes greater use of Web features but offers them only in addition to the usual range of ordering and delivery services. The innovator is more aggressive still, conducting most of his or her business online (e.g. ordering, providing technical support, and even delivering his product through the Web). We operationalised these definitions by first classifying all firms in terms of the extent of their online business activity. Online business activity was assessed as a composite measure based on the relative proportion of a respondent’s Net-based activity relating to five core marketing activities, namely, product promotion, product customization, information dissemination, ordering, and payment. Firms were then arbitrarily split into three roughly equal samples by adopting a cut-off point of 0.3 standard deviation (SD) either side of the mean responses for overall activity. Firms more than 0.3SD to the left of the mean were labelled traditionalists; firms more than 0.3SD to the right of the mean were labelled innovators; firms in between these two points were labelled straddlers. This designation resulted in the identification of 33 traditionalists, 23 straddlers and 28 innovators. Hypothesis Test Results

To explore the differences between the three groups, ANOVAs were performed and the results are presented in Table IV. To compensate for the possible influence of industry-specific differences, the data were normalized across the groups following Malhotra’s (1999) guidelines. This implied standardizing the mean and standard deviation of each industry group represented such that the mean score of the sample on any construct is zero. The findings offer mixed-to-positive support for the hypotheses. Across the sample, those decision-makers which could be classified as innovators were generally more likely to: be younger, better educated and more cosmopolitan; perceive the Internet as a superior way of doing business (relative advantage); indicate that the use of the Internet was compatible with existing business values and systems; perceive the benefits of going online as outweighing the costs of doing so; and report pressures from customers had motivated their switch to online transacting. Discussion

The findings of this study reveal that the adoption of e-commerce among SMEs is most strongly affected by various decision-maker (age, education and cosmopolitanism), innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, and cost) and environmental characteristics (customer pressure).

Marketing in Cyberspace 11 Table 4. Hypothesis Tests

Traditionalist

Straddler

Innovator

F-ratio

p< Number of firms 33 23 28 Directors age .3167 -.3192 -.1111 3.421 .037** Directors education -.3494 .2598 .1983 3.848 .025** Cosmopolitanism -.2912 .0891 .2701 2.827 .065* Relative advantage -.4397 -.0335 .5457 9.590 .000*** Compatibility -.1393 -.2582 .3762 3.507 .035** Complexity .0955 .0469 -.1511 .528 NS Cost .3960 .1048 -.5528 8.988 .000*** Supplier incentive .0090 .0124 -.0207 .010 NS Competitive intensity -.2153 .0472 .2150 1.571 NS Customers’ pressure -.3596 -.0251 .4444 5.914 .004**

* p<.10, ** p<.05, ***p<.001 Decision-maker characteristics

Consistent with other adoption of innovation studies (e.g. Robertson and Wind, 1983; Teo, 2001), the innovators interviewed in this study were found to be generally younger, better educated, and more cosmopolitan in outlook than others. However, the results were not clear cut. Although the 28 innovators interviewed were found to be younger and better educated than the 33 traditionalists, the straddlers in the middle were surprisingly found to be even younger and more educated than the innovators. However, the results do show that the two top groups (straddlers and innovators) were clearly and significantly different from traditionalists in the predicted directions supporting hypotheses 1 and 2.

These results reveal that the younger the adopter, the greater the extent of adoption of e-commerce. Younger people tend to be more aggressive, ambitious, and presented with greater opportunities to learn about the Internet than older people. Learning is also enhanced by the adopter’s level of education, a finding consistent with previous adoption research (e.g. Bracheau and Wetherbe, 1986; Kimberly and Evanisko, 1981; Palvia et al., 1994). Overseas travel also helps for with it comes exposure to new ideas (e.g. Robertson and Wind, 1983; Teo, 2001). Accordingly, the innovators in this study tended to be more cosmopolitan in their business outlook than both straddlers and traditionalists, supporting hypothesis 3. Relative advantage

Although informants across the study generally agreed that the Internet offered a number of business-related advantages, there was a distinction in the specific benefits cited by each adopting group. The findings revealed that in comparison with straddlers and innovators, traditionalists perceived far

12 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis fewer advantages from adopting e-commerce, supporting hypothesis 4. For example, traditionalists generally reported advantages simply in terms of the cost-savings offered by e-commerce in comparison with international phone calls or faxing. In contrast, straddlers were more likely to cite a wider range of benefits as indicated by the comment of one toy-maker: “we adopted e-commerce because we can (1) communicate with the overseas buyers in a faster and convenient manner, (2) transmit photos of samples more easily, and (3) reduce our advertising costs.” Another informant, an online trader, explained:

“the reason we went online was because we want to have an additional communication channel with our buyers; to save capital and time to deal with buyers; to reduce manpower; to increase efficiency; have an additional promotion channel for long term business development; and save on mailing costs”.

Only innovators went so far to claim that the use of the Internet had a direct correlation with business profitability and strategic goals, supporting the hypothesis that innovators would be more likely to perceive relative advantages than traditional or straddler-adopters.

This result is consistent with the results of prior studies that have found relative advantage to be a key variable correlated with adoption. For example, in their study of online financial services, Black et al. (2001) found that adopters were more likely than non-adopters to recognize relative advantages in terms of improved accessibility, convenience, and cost. Compatibility

Again consistent with previous research (e.g. Black et al. 2001), the findings of this study revealed that innovators were more likely than straddlers and traditionalists to report the adoption of e-commerce as being compatible with their existing business values and practices. During the interviews, some straddlers and innovators described their attempts to integrate their online and offline services. For example, one tailor reported:

“we will try to enrich the content of our homepage. The present homepage is our second one and we want to offer more choices in the homepage to satisfy customers’ needs in terms of patterns, styles, and sizes. We can increase our service quality if we offer more choices in the homepage”.

As with other innovators interviewed, this tailor’s actions evidenced a high perception of, and commitment to, integration between the use of the Internet and their existing business practices. This supports the idea that the perceptions of compatibility can strongly affect the adoption of e-commerce, consistent with hypothesis 5.

Marketing in Cyberspace 13 Cost

As a rule, SME decision-makers tend to be quite price-conscious enjoying little capital for funding investment. This trait affects the propensity to adopt new innovations via the perception of learning and economic costs vis-à-vis the perceived benefits of adoption. Indeed, in this study many informants revealed that they had compared the benefits and costs both before and after adopting the Internet as a business tool. The traditionalists in the sample were more likely to report that the costs of setting up and maintaining the Internet were not outweighed by the benefits. When pressed for further information, the informants in this group generally complained that while they had received many online enquiries, few of these (less than one per cent) had turned into completed orders. This finding is similar to Poon and Swatman’s (1998) observation that online sales can be one of the most disappointing issues among some e-commerce adopters. However, in contrast with the low-adopting traditionalists, the straddlers and innovators in this study reported a much more favourite attitude towards the cost-effectiveness of e-commerce. This finding suggests that perceptions of cost-effectiveness are a significant factor affecting the adoption of e-commerce, as proposed in hypothesis 7. Customer pressure

Finally, innovators were much more likely than straddlers or traditionalists to report that pressures from existing customers had motivated their switch to the Internet (for correspondence and conducting business) providing support for hypothesis 10. One manufacturing-innovator interviewed in the study reported that many of their overseas buyers had switched to email which prompted their own adoption of email. Another toy-making straddler acknowledged that “we went online because we wanted to satisfy our customers’ needs.”

In summary, significant differences were found in the predicted directions for seven out of the ten antecedent variables posited as having an effect on the adoption of e-commerce, namely, decision-maker age, education level, cosmopolitan outlook, relative advantage, compatibility, cost, and customer pressure. No relationships were observed linking adoption with perceived complexity, incentives offered by suppliers, or rivalry.

In terms of innovation-complexity, few informants in the study reported difficulties of a complex and technical nature associated with going online. Similar to Premkumar and Roberts’ (1999) conclusion, complexity can thus be dismissed as a non-significant variable affecting the adoption of the Internet in SMEs. Additionally, incentives or inducements offered by suppliers of Internet technology also had no influence on adoption in this study. While informants claimed that their Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

14 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis had provided technical support and basic training, these service firms had not motivated their business decision to adopt e-commerce. In the broader vein of adoption research, the role of supplier incentives remains in question. Some studies have identified this variable to be a significant factor (e.g. Delone 1988; Gatignon and Robertson 1989) while others, including Premkumar and Roberts (1999) and this study, have not. It may be that the role of supplier incentives is contingent on the specific nature of the innovation in question. For highly technical products, such as laptop computers (as in Gatignon and Robertson’s (1989) study), incentives offered by suppliers may be more salient than for less technical products such as e-commerce tools. Finally, and most surprisingly, no role for competitive pressure was identified in this study. This finding stands in contrast with Poon and Swatman’s (1998) observation that 95 per cent of firms in their Australian study reported that e-commerce had become a competitive necessity. The lack of a significant difference between the innovating groups also seems to contradict some comments heard during the interviews. During the interviews, several informants claimed that they set up web site specifically because one of their rivals had done so. There was a concern that if they did not follow suit, they would lose customers or fall behind. For example, one manufacturing innovator reported that:

“We went online because we did not want to fall behind our competitors. Many overseas customers have changed to use the Internet for business, so we need to catch up the business trend”.

The discrepancy between the qualitative and quantitative data gleaned suggests that competitive pressures, although frequently mentioned, are relatively unimportant in the adoption decision when compared with issues pertaining to relative advantage, compatability and cost. Competitive pressures, where they exist at all, are in the final adoption decision outweighed by more firm-specific considerations. Or alternatively, competitive factors are evaluated primarily in firm-specific terms (such as the costs/benefits of going online), rather than viewed as a distinct adoption stimuli.

Conclusions and Future Directions

The study is perhaps the first of its kind to systematically investigate the factors motivating SME decision-makers to adopt e-commerce in Asia. In contrast with previous descriptive research in this topic area, a hypothesis-testing methodology was used to examine the influence of ten antecedent variables identified from an extensive review of existing adoption research. In this study, seven factors were identified as significant in explaining e-commerce adoption; decision-maker age, education level, cosmopolitan

Marketing in Cyberspace 15 outlook, perceived compatibility, cost, customer pressure, and the perceived relative advantages of the innovation. In contrast with previous adoption research, no relationships were observed linking adoption with the the perceived complexity of the innovation, incentives offered by suppliers or competitive rivalry.

The results of this study contribute to the existing literature on adoption of innovation in several ways. First, the study has found that White et al.’s (1998) classification labels of traditionalist, straddler, and innovator are useful discriminators of adopter groups. Second, the results generally confirm the generalizability of research carried out in the U.S., Europe Australia and elsewhere regarding the salience of established adoption-drivers such as perceived compatibility and relative advantage. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to the literature by investigating a hithertofore unstudied, yet important, group of Internet adopters, namely Hong Kong-Chinese decision-makers.

The chief limitations of this study concern the relatively small sizes of the three adopter-groups and the limited number of items used to measure the constructs during data collection. Interviews were deemed necessary given the generally poor performance of mail surveys conducted in Hong Kong, but interviews are not themselves without problems. To facilitate interviews with busy decision-makers, only a few items (generally no more than two) for each measure were selected. In other words, the decision was made to boost the internal validity of the study at the expense of construct validity.

Both limitations hint at directions for further research. In this study part of the research aim was to generate insight and probe informant’s responses via open-ended follow-up questions. An alternative approach for future research would be simply to test the hypotheses, sacrifice the open-ended questions, and include more operational measures for each construct measured. If more resources were available (e.g. a team of highly-trained researchers) a follow-up study could target a much larger sample size in the hope of catching bigger groups of adopters. Further research could also incorporate organizational factors (e.g. business size – see Kimberly and Evanisko (1981)) and industry-specific factors (e.g. information intensity – see Thong and Yap (1995)) into the analysis. Replicative studies could be done across national boundaries and include culture-specific measures to determine whether Internet adoption is affected by host culture. Finally, it might be interesting to track a group of adopters over time to see whether and how fast firms shift between adopter categories. For example, when, if at all, does a traditionalist-adopter become a straddler or a straddler an innovator? Longitudinal data collected on these questions would reveal much about the pace of Internet adoption within firms and industry groups.

16 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis Implications for managers

E-commerce is a fact of life for many industries and its role is likely to continue to grow into the foreseeable future. Competitive realities are in a state of flux and few can predict how the Internet will ultimately shape competition within specific industries. During this period of uncertainty and opportunity, decision-makers would do well to benchmark their online operations against the best-performing rivals in their core markets. Continuous improvement and adaptation are the only means to ensure that firms aren’t left behind as the competitive landscape continues to shift.

The results of this study reveal that SME decision-makers generally do recognize the relative advantages associated with the e-commerce, (e.g. cost-savings, improved global presence, promotion). However, few of the informants interviewed had designed a coherent strategy to capitalise on the full potential of e-commerce. Rather, online activities often appeared to be ad hoc, circumspect, and tangential to the corporate strategy of the firm. In crafting an appropriate e-commerce strategy, much can be learned from studying online rivals. In this study some managers gleaned valuable information about web-design from studying competitor’s homepages. But rival’s websites should reveal much more than web-design tips. A more systematic approach would seek to identify competitor’s online product-offerings, pricing strategies, promotion campaigns, and distribution innovations. By gleaning information from a variety of online sources, both local and global, managers should also be able to determine when a competitor misses a window of opportunity or prices inappropriately. As Webb and Sayer (1998, p.826) have commented, “in the intensely competitive world of the Internet, the ability to learn from the mistakes of others should not be under-estimated” (p.826). In cybermarkets, competitive information is less scarce than in traditional markets. To date few SMEs have positioned themselves to fully exploit this new reality.

Marketing in Cyberspace 17 Appendix

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20 Ha Lau Ching and Paul Ellis

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About the Authors Ha Lau Ching is currently an instructor of the Department of Marketing at Baptist University and is a Ph.D candidate at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her major research interests are electronic commerce and small and medium sized enterprises. Paul Ellis is currently an associate professor of the Department of Management and Marketing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His major research interests include: the role of marketing in economic development, market orientation, emergent phenomena in complex adaptive systems, normal accident theory, and the social structure of competition.